Chaos Kingdom Hearts
by Carson Delmaje
Summary: Eggman has gotten his hands on the Chaos Emeralds and has somehow joined Sonic's world with the universe of Kingdom Hearts, and Sora and friends get stuck right in the middle of it all. What can possibly happen?
1. The Story Begins

_A/N: After receiving comments about how this chapter lacks scene separation, I've finally gone back and fixed the problem. I also realized it was in EVERY CHAPTER, so i'm going back and updating all of them. So here's the slightly updated version of Chapter 1. For first time readers, This is my first fanfiction, so don't be TOO harsh, but i do enjoy constructive criticism, so please review! Ummm... Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Sonic is owned by Sega. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 1: The Story Begins**

The Destiny Islands, a series of small tropical islands separated by only a couple hundred yards each. The mainland consisted of the town, where most of the islands' residents were condensed. The nearest island to the mainland was the common meeting place for many of the town's youth, and since school was out for the summer, more and more kids went to the island every day.

One day, before dawn, that was the goal of three of these kids. As sunlight broke across the beach, revealing the silhouette of the giant tree on the adjacent island, the first of these three arrived at the raft they had planned to use to cross the water. He had spiky, brown hair and deep blue eyes. He looked around then sat on the raft with his head in his hands. He hadn't slept the entire night, and he started to wish he had. He closed his eyes and let the sounds of the waves relax him.

"SORA! Wake up!" Sora opened his eyes to find that he was on his back staring at the sky. He rolled over to see a red-haired girl kneeling down and smiling. "I knew you would be sleeping out here, you just couldn't wait could you?"

"What does that mean Kairi? Weren't we supposed to meet here at dawn?"

"You already forgot? We talked about this yesterday, Sora!"

Sora scratched his head and smiled, "Remind me again what we talked about?"

A voice came from behind Sora to answer the question. "We agreed to meet here at noon so we could sleep in, that way we weren't too tired while we were there."

Sora turned around to find someone slightly taller than him, with long, thick, platinum hair. "Hey, Riku, how long have you been here?"

Kairi ran to the raft, which was now in the water, "long enough to set everything up sleepyhead! Now let's go before it gets any later!" At this note, Sora and Riku joined Kairi on the raft and set sail.

* * *

"Come on, Shadow! Try to keep up! We've still got a couple miles to this race!"

"This isn't a race Sonic! I brought you on this mission so we could infiltrate the doctor's desert base together, quickly, and under the radar! This is serious! You're lucky G.U.N. even allowed you to take part in this." Shadow was still trying to figure out why he recommended that careless blue hedgehog for a partner on such an important mission when he saw the base up ahead. He looked in the sky to find the blue plane he was expecting to see by then. He pushed the button on his earpiece transmitter. "Tails, where are you? Have you shut down the doctor's security yet?"

Sonic ran silently while Shadow was getting his feedback from Tails. Shadow then looked at Sonic and told him, "The security is offline, but only for a few minutes, so we have to do this quickly."

Sonic smiled, "Then it looks like this is a game of speed now! Last one in is a rotten egg!" After saying this he rushed on ahead, leaving a furious Shadow to catch up.

Sonic ran up the wall of the base to the roof, where he looked around for a way in. After a minute of searching, he found an air vent, which he opened and entered. He crawled around the ventilation system for some time until he found a way out of the tightly enclosed space. He kicked out the vent, and stepped out, only to find Shadow already inside. Shadow looked at him motioned him forward, not before smirking.

"If you hadn't ran off so quickly, I would have told you that with the security system down, the door was unlocked," Shadow smartly told his blue rival. Sonic chuckled, and the two hedgehogs quietly walked down the hallway of the base.

Sonic was the first to break the silence. "So, Shadow, let me run this plan with you again. We're supposed to break in, which we already did, and kick Eggman's butt, right?"

"First we have to find the seven Chaos Emeralds, which the doctor is using to power whatever machine he has created this time. Then we can focus on finding Eggman, and arresting him." Sonic nodded, though he was uninterested. He cared more about stopping Eggman's plan than whatever G.U.N was planning. Sonic then heard an electric, high pitched voice in Shadow's earpiece. Shadow stopped walking and listened.

When Shadow looked up, Sonic asked, "So, what did Tails have to say?"

"Based off of his energy scans, Tails believes that the Chaos Emeralds are at the end of this hallway. Let's hurry!" They both ran down the hall to find a completely sealed off door at the end. Sonic looked at the door and found a keypad to the right.

"Do you have any idea what the code would be?" Sonic stepped back as Shadow looked at the keypad. He raised his fist above his head, and brought it down strongly on the keypad, smashing it in. The door opened. "I guess that counts... whatever happened to quiet?" Sonic asked and entered the door, with Shadow following

The room was dark, excluding seven different colored lights in the center of the room. The pair walked to the lights to find the Chaos Emeralds circling each other in a glass tube. Shadow curled his fingers into a fist, and punched the tube, shattering the glass.

"We need to separate the Chaos Emeralds, so the doctor doesn't use them for whatever it is he is planning." Shadow reached in for the red Chaos Emerald, but the moment touched it all the lights turned on and an alarm went off. The door closed and latched behind them, and a screen turned on along one wall of the room.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Sonic and Shadow! I figured you would try to get the Chaos Emeralds." The man on the screen was very large, wore black goggles, and had a long, brown mustache.

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled, "What are you planning!"

Eggman laughed, "Wouldn't you like to know? All I'm going to tell you is that I plan to bring this world to another! The rest I'll leave to surprise."

Shadow stepped forward clutching the red and blue Chaos Emeralds. He gave the blue one to Sonic, then turned to the screen. "Too bad you don't have the power of the seven Emeralds anymore, Doctor!"

The doctor coolly responded, "You can have the Emeralds now, my machine has already absorbed enough energy! Now, prepare yourselves, because I'm about to introduce you to the greatest power in all the universes! I give you, Kingdom Hearts!"

Eggman pushed a button that was off the screen and started laughing. Suddenly the screen turned white, and Sonic and Shadow could hear a loud boom coming closer and closer to them, until they couldn't hear anymore, and everything turned white.

* * *

The sun was setting on the Destiny Islands, and Sora and Kairi were sitting on the bent paopu tree that they always sat on during sunsets. Riku was setting up the raft to head back to the mainland, and the other two were enjoying their silence together. Kairi was the first to break the silence.

"Hey Sora, do you know the legend of paopu fruits?"

Sora did in fact know the legend, as he had wished he could share a paopu with Kairi for the longest time, but he let her continue anyway. "Not really, what is it?"

"Well, they say that if you share a paopu fruit with somebody, then you and that other person's destinies will be intertwined, forever. Wouldn't that be really cool if a paopu fruit could do that?"

Sora decided to take a risk he had avoided for a long time. He stood up on the tree, reached over and plucked a fruit from its branches. He sat back down and played with it in his hand for a minute. "Yeah, that would be really cool. Hey, Kairi, there's something I've wanted to ask you for a long time." Kairi looked at Sora and leaned a little closer, signaling that he had her full attention. Sora then ripped the paopu in half and offered her a piece. "Do you want some?"

Kairi laughed, then smiled. "I would love to," she said, taking the offered half then smiling. They both ate the two halves of the paopu, then looked at each other. Kairi once again broke the silence. "You do know what this means now right?"

Sora thought about it for a second, not wanting to say the wrong thing, "no… what does it mean?"

"I'm pretty sure it means this," Kairi said, and started leaning toward Sora, he did the same. They got closer and closer, and Sora started to feel her breathing on his cheek.

"SORA! KAIRI! LOOK!" The two separated, with Sora angry at how close he was, and looked at Riku down the beach. He was pointing out at something in the middle of the ocean. Sora and Kairi stood on the tree to get a better look, and saw something impossible.

The water a few miles out was sinking inward, until it looked like a giant hole in the middle of the ocean. A bright, white light emitted from the hole and began to expand. The sound hit them a few seconds later, it was as loud as a train wreck. The light kept expanding, it was moving too fast. Sora realized that no matter what they did they couldn't get away in time. Kairi realized it too because at that moment she took Sora's hand and held it tight. The light was finally upon them, and they couldn't hear or see anything.


	2. Introductory Lessons

_A/N:[UPDATED] I guess you all either liked the first chapter, or just wanted to see how I could mess this up worse huh? Sonic the Hedgehog characters and ideas owned by SEGA. Kingdom Hearts characters and ideas owned by Square Enix. P.S. If you have any thoughts on how I can make better page breaks for the scene changes, let me know.  
_

**Chapter 2: Introductory Lessons**

Sora awoke to find himself in a large plains area. He quickly stood up and turned around a few times to try to figure out where he was. _No water, this can't be part of the islands_, he thought to himself. He called out to the others, but there was no response. He felt a sudden sense of loneliness, and disappointment.

Sora wandered around, but really didn't see a point. There was grass as far as he could see. Sitting down, he looked forward, trying to find anything that wasn't green. He was about to lean back and sleep, hoping it was just a bad dream, when he saw something shine on the ground ahead.

He stood up and ran over to it to find, to his surprise, a giant blue hedgehog lying unconscious on the ground. In the hedgehog's hand was a large, blue gemstone. Sora was more surprised at the size of the stone rather than the hedgehog. After all, he'd been on many adventures to the wildest places.

He nudged the hedgehog, trying to wake it up. He rolled it over, and checked its nose. "Good, he's breathing at least." He looked over the hedgehog's body and found numerous cuts and bruises, as well as a large bump on its head. "Well, that's nothing a little magic can't fix."

Sora stood up, and held his arm out. Suddenly a key-like sword with a keychain at the hilt, and a blade protruding at the top appeared in his hand. The blade looked like a crown, and the keychain bore the Mickey Mouse insignia. He pointed his sword at the hedgehog and shouted "Heal!"

A green light emitted from the tip of the sword and shone on the hedgehog. The cuts and bruises disappeared, and the large bump shrunk. When it looked as normal as a giant, blue hedgehog, it opened its eyes, and spoke.

"Wh- Who are you? And where are Shadow and Eggman?"

Sora jumped back a bit. He had expected the hedgehog wake up, but not to speak. "My name's Sora and I have no idea who any of those others are. Who are you?"

"I'm Sonic," he said, getting up, "Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic's eyes studied Sora up and down, until his eyes rested on Sora's sword. "What kind of sword is that?"

Sora held his weapon out in front of himself, "It's called a Keyblade. It is a special sword that chooses its wielder based off of the strength of his heart. It can release the hearts of those who have lost theirs to the darkness."

Sonic stood silent for a second, taking it all in, then asked, "How does one 'lose their heart to the darkness?'" Sora realized how long of a conversation he would be having, so he sat down. Sonic did the same.

"Well, there are these creatures called heartless. They are made up of hearts of people that were corrupted by darkness. The heartless feed on the darkness in people's hearts, and when they find a heart, they will fill it with darkness, and create a new heartless. The Keyblade is the only weapon that can release the hearts back to Kingdom Hearts, where hearts originate from, freeing them from the darkness."

The moment Sora mentioned Kingdom Hearts, Sonic realized that Eggman had successfully fused his world with Sora's. He looked at the Chaos Emerald in his hand, and wondered how Eggman did it, and why.

Finished with his story, Sora felt like getting some answers of his own. "What is that in your hand?"

"This," Sonic began, "is a Chaos Emerald. They are special stones that have limitless power. There are only seven, and if all seven are united, it is said a miracle will happen. There aren't many who can use the powers of the Emeralds, because the power is based off of the heart."

Sora looked at the Emerald, then at his own Keyblade, "Maybe there is a link between the power of the Emeralds and the power of the Keyblade." Sonic nodded at the possibility, and then looked out at the field. Sora did too. "I need to find my friends. If I wound up here they probably did too!"

"I'll come too. We also need to find the other six Chaos Emeralds. Whatever Eggman is planning with Kingdom Hearts can't be good, and we need to stop him!" Sora agreed and they both started walking down the endless field. As they were walking, Sora couldn't stop thinking about what happened to the others._**

* * *

**_

Riku stood at the top of a mountain, trying to figure out where he was. There were mountains everywhere, and nothing he could see was moving. He had been climbing for hours, ever since he woke up halfway up the mountain. There was nobody there, so Riku had decided to climb, hoping he would see someone or something that could lead him towards his friends.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something fast running along the mountains. It was so fast; all Riku could see was a black blur. "Is that… a heartless?" Riku asked himself. The blur stopped running on the next mountain, revealing what seemed to Riku to be a big black hedgehog. It was holding something red in its hand, and it looked at Riku. The red thing glowed and then the hedgehog disappeared.

"Who are you!" said a voice from behind Riku. He turned around to see the same black hedgehog. The red thing turned out to be a large gemstone.

"It doesn't matter who I am! Are you a heartless?" Riku forcefully questioned as he summoned his Keyblade. Riku's Keyblade differed from Sora's in the fact that it was purple, the shaft was in the shape of a bat's wing, and there was an angelic wing protruding from the end of the sword.

Shadow looked at Riku's Keyblade and smirked, "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into." Shadow stepped into a fighting stance, and then charged at Riku, who raised his Keyblade in defense. Shadow used the power of the Chaos Emerald to warp behind Riku, and kicked him in the back. Riku fell, but quickly got up and charged at Shadow. He slashed at Shadow, who quickly dodged the strike, jumped up and punched Riku in the face.

Riku stepped back and felt his cheek. Shadow charged again and Riku noticed the red gem glowing, and prepared himself. The moment he disappeared, Riku turned around and slashed at the space with the blunt end of his Keyblade. As expected, Shadow appeared behind him, right into the moving Keyblade.

Knocked to the ground, Shadow decided on a new tactic. He got back on his feet, jumped back, and used the Chaos Emerald to create a ball of energy in his fist. "Chaos Spear!" he shouted as he threw the energy toward Riku. The ball split into numerous small spears. Riku raised his Keyblade and deflected each one. "Is that all you got?" Riku laughed.

Riku then channeled the darkness lurking in his heart into energy, and fired this dark aura at Shadow. Shadow tried to dodge the attack, but it was too late. The dark energy hit Shadow square in the chest, causing him to be thrown off the top of the mountain. Riku straightened up and walked to the edge of the mountain, where Shadow had fallen. He looked down, but couldn't see anyone. "I guess that's it, then."

"You really think so?" Shadow reappeared behind an unprepared Riku and punched him square in the back. Riku immediately fell to the ground. "You're lucky I'm not who I used to be, otherwise you would be dead," he said turning around.

Riku got on his knees, panting, "If you're not a heartless, then who ARE you?"

Shadow turned back to Riku and said, "My name is Shadow the Hedgehog, and that's all you need to know." As he was about to leave, a looming darkness spread around the mountaintop. Riku stood up and clutched his Keyblade a little tighter, realizing what was happening. Shadow turned to Riku and shouted, "What is this?"

As he spoke, puddles of darkness appeared on the ground all around them. Creatures started to grow from out of the puddles. They were short and hunched, with ball-shaped heads and yellow, beady eyes. They had long antennae at the top of their heads, and sharp claws on their hands.

"Heartless!" Riku yelled, and they both realized that they were on the same side.

* * *

High in the sky, a floating island was passing a dark storm cloud. At the top of the island was a pyramid, whose peak displayed a giant emerald, the Master Emerald. With the power to neutralize all seven of the Chaos Emeralds, it is the sole energy source that keeps the island afloat. The Master Emerald's guardian, Knuckles the Echidna, was sitting on the stairs leading to the top of the pyramid.

He looked out at the passing storm cloud. "That's too dark for a regular storm." He stood up and walked to the Master Emerald. He placed his hands on the Emerald and spoke. "Master Emerald, I ask you, show me what is happening to this world!"

The Master Emerald glowed a bright green, then faded, as an image appeared in its center. "What is _that_?" Knuckles asked himself.

"It's called a heartless," said a high pitched voice behind him. Knuckles turned around to find someone his height, with large round ears walking toward him.

"Who are you? And how did you get here?" Knuckles demanded, raising his fists.


	3. Nostalgia and New Experiences

_Hello everyone! So I found out that __this chapter somehow got switched with chapter 4, so I'm just fixing it, even though I haven't updated this fic in almost two years... Maybe I'll update soon... Anyway, I hope you like the episode, and if you want me to update, review! _**  
**

**Chapter 3: Nostalgia and New Experiences**

Sora and Sonic had finally escaped the endless grassland, into endless deserts. While walking, they told each other of their adventures. Sora was fascinated by Sonic's stories of giant water monsters, battles in space, fighting robots, and traveling the world. Sora even felt threatened that his experiences were nothing compared to Sonic's, but he told them just the same.

Sora was in the middle of explaining his recent adventure, when he looked up and saw a black cloud spiraling ahead of them. "This isn't good," he said, as he stopped walking. Sonic looked at the cloud, confused, and looked at Sora, asking what it was. "I think we're about to find some trouble, Sonic. I hope your experiences have prepared you for this."

Sonic was still confused, but his confusion was ended when heartless started raining down from the clouds. "So, I'm guessing these are the heartless." Sonic smiled and started stretching his legs, "Well this should be fun!"

Sora was surprised at how calm, even excited Sonic was at the idea of fighting the heartless. He summoned his Keyblade, and prepared to fight. The heartless were getting closer, and the only thing Sonic was holding was his Chaos Emerald. Sora admired his spirit, then ran forward to fight. Sonic did the same.

Sora struck the first heartless he got to, and it was sliced like a knife through butter, and the stolen heart flew upwards and disappeared. He did the same to the next two he came to. He sighed as he cut through another one, saying, "This brings back memories." Sonic had his own way of fighting. He would charge at the heartless, curl up into a ball, and spin rapidly toward the heartless. This attack would plow through every heartless it touched. He would also use the Chaos Emerald to warp, kicking and punching the heartless through, then warping away.

The heartless seemed endless. For every one they defeated, three more seemed to pop up. Sora was focusing everything he had on the heartless in front of him, until he heard Sonic scream. He turned around to see the heartless attacking Sonic relentlessly, to a point where Sonic couldn't get away. Sora tried to run to Sonic, but there were too many heartless. They started to push Sora away from Sonic and there was nothing Sora could do. There were too many to break through.

"That's enough, my heartless!" a booming voice seemed to come from the clouds. The heartless faded away, leaving Sora and Sonic confused, and wounded.

Sonic looked into the black clouds, now covering the entire sky, with a serious look on his face. It was the first time Sora saw Sonic this stern. "I know that voice, but it can't be." Sora looked at Sonic, then the clouds again, where he was surprised to see a giant, black airship descending. Sonic yelled, "Eggman! How do you control the heartless? What are your plans with them and Kingdom Hearts?"

Sora remembered from Sonic that this Eggman was the person behind everything that was going on at the time. He spoke up at this point, "How do you know about Kingdom Hearts? Where are Riku and Kairi?"

"So many questions, they will be answered in time. Now you know the power I have over the heartless, so stay out of my way! Nobody can interfere with my plans for Kingdom Hearts. That includes the Keyblade Wielders!" With that the airship flew away, but the clouds remained.

Sonic and Sora looked at each other, and they both knew that if Eggman was in charge of the heartless, then no good would come out of it. Sora spoke first.

"Sonic, we need to get going. If we're going to stop Eggman's plan, we need to collect the Chaos Emeralds, find Riku and Kairi, then keep Eggman from getting to Kingdom Hearts!" Sonic nodded and tried to get up, but fell again.

"How do we do that, Sora? We're both beat up pretty bad." Sora smiled and held his Keyblade between them.

"The same way I fixed you up earlier. Heal!" The same green light emitted from the Keyblade, but this time it surrounded them both. Their wounds magically fixed themselves, and in no time they were up and ready to go again. "Now," Sora said majestically, "let's go!"

Shadow and Riku were running down the mountains, trying to get away from the heartless. They were outnumbered, so they had no choice. The dark clouds were along the sky everywhere they looked.

* * *

"There must be a connection between what the Doctor's done, and the heartless!" Shadow shouted to Riku. Riku nodded, assuming this "Doctor," was the one who brought him there, then slashed away at a heartless that had caught up.

"We need to find a place to get away from these guys first! Then we'll figure out what to do!" Riku and Shadow had finally made it to the base of the mountain, but it was too late, for the heartless caught up to the two and surrounded them. Shadow pulled out his Chaos Emerald.

"I did not want to do this." Shadow grabbed Riku's arm and shouted, "Chaos Control!" A bright light seemed to shine in Riku's eyes, and the heartless disappeared, instead replaced by a steel-walled room. Shadow sighed, "At least we're safe, for now."

Riku was confused. "Okay, first off, where are we? What did you just do? And why didn't you do that in the first place?"

Shadow walked to a door and turned around to Riku. "We're in the basement of an abandoned G.U.N. warehouse. G.U.N is the global military program. I am also an agent there. What I just did was used the Chaos Emerald to activate Chaos Control, which allows me to instantly teleport anywhere I think of. This gives off a lot of energy, and with the doctor's machines, it would only be a matter of time before he found where we went." He opened the door and left.

Riku got up and followed Shadow out of the room. In the next room he found a flight of stairs, on which he saw Shadow stepping off the last one onto the upper floor. He took the stairs and while he was going up he heard a woman's voice greeting Shadow. As he entered the door to the next room he found the source of the voice. A female bat was sitting on a crate in the main warehouse. It was outfitted with a couch, a television, and a refrigerator.

"Well, Shadow, this is new. You've never brought company." The female bat jumped off of the crate, walked to Riku, and held out her hand. "My name's Rouge, Rouge the bat. If Shadow hasn't told you, I'm an agent of G.U.N. This is our home." Shadow muttered something under his breath then spoke up.

"Listen Rouge, we need your help. The doctor has used the power of the Chaos Emeralds to bring this world to another... again. We need your help to find the remaining Chaos Emeralds and stop whatever he is planning."

"We also need to find my friends!" Riku cut in. Rouge looked back at him flew up to his height with the powerful wings on her back.

"And what is your name anyway?"

"Riku."

"I see. Well Mr. Riku, it seems our main priority is to find the Chaos Emeralds. Once we stop Eggman's plan, then we can worry about your friends." She descended back to the ground and walked to Shadow. "So, what do you think we should do Shadow?"

Shadow thought about it for a second, and then remembered something. "We need to find Sonic. I gave him one of the Chaos Emeralds right before the doctor activated his machine. If I kept mine then he probably kept his. We need to find him, then get him to help us find the remaining Chaos Emeralds. We also need to learn more about Kingdom Hearts. Eggman mentioned it right before sending us all away."

Riku jumped once Shadow mentioned this. "What do you know about Kingdom Hearts!" They both looked at him wondering what HE knew about it.

Rouge walked to Riku again, "I think the real question is what you know about this 'Kingdom Hearts?'" Riku sighed as he prepared a long and detailed explanation.

* * *

Knuckles the Echidna was staring into the Master Emerald, bewildered at what this mouse had just told him. "So, what you're saying is that Kingdom Hearts is a collection of the power of hearts, and that if someone were to control the Kingdom, they would have completely limitless power to use however they choose?"

"Yep, that's right!"

"That must be what Eggman is planning. How would he access Kingdom Hearts though?"

"I don't know. The last one who tried to use it had found the door, so I guess it is possible to find it again."

"That must explain the clouds. He must have robots in them looking for an entrance." Knuckles turned away from the Emerald and looked out into the clouds. "So what do we do now?"

King Mickey walked next to Knuckles and told him, "We need to find Sora and Riku. The Keyblade is the only power that can close the door to Kingdom Hearts. Can't your Emerald show us where they are?"

"We can try to find out." Knuckles turned around back to the Master Emerald and once again placed his hands on it. "Master Emerald, I ask you again to answer my question. Show me where Sora and Riku are!" The emerald showed two separate images. The first showed Sora and Sonic walking in a city, while the other showed Riku with Shadow and Rouge in a warehouse. "What are the odds that your friends are with mine?"

Mickey looked at the images inside the Emerald. "That's Sora and Riku all right! Who are they with though?"

"Well, it looks like the brown haired kid is with Sonic, and the white haired one is with Shadow and Rouge." Knuckles chuckled. "Now we know where they are. We just need to get to them before we lose them again."

Slightly pacing, Mickey asked, "How do we get to them?"

"We have a giant floating island, remember?" Knuckles laughed and for a third time placed his hands on the Master Emerald.


	4. Discovery

_A/N:[UPDATED] This chapter is a turning point... It's also the Chapter where people might try and kill me after reading... pertaining to questions you will have at the end of this chapter, in Eggman's words, "They will be answered in time." Maybe... Sonic the Hedgehog characters and ideas copyrighted by SEGA. Kingdom Hearts Characters and Ideas Copyrighted by Square Enix. I also just remembered one more copyright that I'm too lazy to go back and correct. Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters and ideas Copyrighted by Disney. _

**Chapter 4: Discovery**

"So, how do we find the second Chaos Emerald?" Sora asked Sonic, while wandering through a deserted city they found themselves in. It had been hours since the departure of Eggman, and they had just recently found the city. The dark clouds had spread all across the sky, as if a storm was lurking without any rain.

Sonic held up his Chaos Emerald, which was pulsing with energy, and said, "The Chaos Emeralds react when they're near other Chaos Emeralds, making them more powerful in numbers. That is why when the seven are together it is one of the most powerful things in the world."

Nodding, Sora looked around the empty city. "Why would the Chaos Emerald turn up here?"

"It could be anywhere. You never know where a Chaos Emerald will turn up until it does." Sonic looked at a tall building that had approximately 12 stories, and windows on every floor. He held the Emerald near it, then away from it, feeling the pulses. "The next Emerald is in this building somewhere. We'd better hurry; I think Eggman is looking for them too."

They entered the building, and Sora got a sudden chill. "Nothing is creepier than a giant empty building…" Sonic laughed while watching the Chaos Emerald. Sora couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to jump out at them. They found themselves at a staircase, and Sonic motioned Sora upward.

While walking up the stairs, a question popped into Sonic's head. "Hey Sora, What do you think Eggman wants with Kingdom Hearts?"

Sora had been thinking of this question as well. "I don't know. Kingdom Hearts has a lot of power, and that power in the wrong hands could lead to a lot of bad things."

Sonic stopped on the fourth floor, and walked through the door. Sora, still a little nervous about being inside a run down, abandoned building, slowly followed. The room was dark, except for two glowing lights. The first light came from the Chaos Emerald in Sonic's hand. The second came from the corner. "I think we found our second Chaos Emerald, Sora!" Sonic happily cheered as he ran to get the other Emerald. Sora, on the other hand was nervous.

"Sonic, when we were outside didn't we see windows on every floor? I'm pretty sure it wasn't _this_ dark outside." Sora looked around, but could see nothing but the two lights.

"_I thought I told you two to stay out of my way_!" Eggman's voice boomed into the room. The darkness lifted to reveal dozens of heartless crowded into the large room. Sora summoned his Keyblade, but he still remembered what happened last time they fought the heartless. "There's no use, you simply can't defeat this many heartless on your own, and Sonic can't even truly destroy any without a Keyblade! It's hopeless! Just give me the two Chaos Emeralds and nobody will get hurt."

Holding both Chaos Emeralds in his hand, Sonic yelled back, "You'll have to take them from us yourself!"

"That should be easy enough. Heartless, attack them and hold nothing back!" The heartless all jumped at once at Sonic and Sora, who braced themselves for the worst. Immediately the heartless were upon them and there was darkness once more. Sora slashed blindly, hoping he could hit whatever heartless was near him. He couldn't see Sonic at all, but he could hear him in pain. Sora couldn't get to him, there was no hope.

Suddenly, a blue light emitted from the place where Sonic should have been. The light intensely burned away every heartless in the room. When the light cleared, Sora saw an empty room. He looked at Sonic, who seemed to not have moved at all, was standing with the second Chaos Emerald in one hand, and a blue Keyblade in the other.

"What just happened... how did you get a Keyblade?" Sora immediately asked. Sonic shrugged and held up his Keyblade. It looked like Sora's Keyblade, except it was all blue, and the keychain was the blue Chaos Emerald instead of the Mickey Mouse insignia.

Sonic looked at the Keyblade deeply, "I don't really know what happened. I was thinking about what Eggman said about me not being able to destroy them when they jumped on me, and out of nowhere the Chaos Emerald started shining and turned into this."

"That's it?"

"That's it." Sonic walked to the window in the room and looked up. He saw Eggman's airship flying away. "Eggman just left, so we should be fine for now." Sonic walked out of the room and back into the stairwell, leaving Sora with even more questions about the Keyblade than ever.

"And I thought I had finally figured this thing out…" He said to himself, looking at his own Keyblade, before following Sonic out of the room, in search of the next Chaos Emerald. When they left the building he looked up at the dark clouds, hoping Kairi and Riku were okay.

* * *

Riku sat uncomfortably on the couch while Rouge was pacing, waiting for Shadow. He had left and hour before to try and find Sonic, saying it would be faster if he went alone. Rouge spent the rest of the time explaining that Shadow and Sonic could travel faster than the speed of sound, so going alone really did help speed Shadow in his search.

"So let me get this straight, Riku. You're saying that the power of Kingdom Hearts is so strong that whoever controls that power could control the world?" Riku nodded, which caused Rouge to stop pacing and sit down, open-mouthed. "I couldn't imagine Eggman with that power. If he had that, and the Chaos Emeralds, he could do anything he wanted."

Riku twiddled his thumbs, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't resist thinking about the other two, and what might have happened to them. The last time they were separated, his friends didn't give up looking for him, so Riku knew that he couldn't give up on them.

Rouge's ears twitched, and she looked around, listening. "Do you hear that?" Riku stood up, went to the door and pressed his ear against it. Rouge added, "It sounds like jet engines, big ones at that."

"There's only one way to find out," Riku said, while opening the door. Rouge got up and followed him out. She found Riku outside with the Keyblade in his hands, surrounded by black creatures.

"Are those…. The heartless?" Riku turned his head and nodded. Rouge looked up to see a giant black airship, the source of the engine sound, with Eggman's logo on the side. Rouge jumped around a little bit, and kicked the air to warm up. "Well then, let's see how tough they really are then!"

The first heartless jumped at Riku, who sliced it in half. He then slashed at another, while Rouge kicked at every heartless that came near her. She flew up a few feet, and then drilled at one directly beneath her. Riku fired dark aura shots, the same attack he used against Shadow, at every heartless he could aim at. Suddenly, the heartless stopped attacking.

"So, you're the other Keyblade wielder. Riku, is it? Your spiky haired friend asked about you." Eggman's voice exploded out of the airship above, "You two are faring much better than he and Sonic did. Then again, I have no hatred against _you_."

Riku got upset, "What did you do to Sora? Are they on your ship? Where is Kairi?"

"You two really ARE friends. You ask just as many questions as he does. Let me tell you a secret, _Sora_ isn't on this ship. As for your Kairi friend, you'll just have to come up and find out for yourself. That is, if you can!" Eggman laughed as a beam of light came down from the airship. Something that could only be described as a figure made entirely of water appeared, with a metallic, bug like skull where its head should have been. Riku looked at the skull and found on the forehead the heartless symbol; a black heart with red outlines and a red "X" inside the heart. "I hope you enjoy my Artificial Chaos Heartless!"

Riku ran at the new heartless and slashed horizontally. The slash shattered the heartless, and the water drops fell to the ground, the skull rattling on top. "He wasn't that tough," Riku muttered. He turned around to look at the water drops, which started moving independently toward each other. The water entered the skull, and the heartless rose from the ground, taking its original form. "Well, that's something new." The new heartless expanded whip-like arms and lashed out at Riku. He jumped back to avoid the attack, then quickly charged and cut at its body. Once again, there was no avail.

Rouge was still fighting the regular heartless. Their numbers were rising, and she was getting tired. Three heartless jumped at her at once, so she flew three feet up, spin kicked the nearest one in midair, landed on the second, and threw the third. She ran toward more and jump kicked another. "I'm running out of moves," she panted. She looked at Riku fighting the Artificial Chaos, and struggling. Out of nowhere, a heartless attacked her from behind, and she fell to the ground. The heartless crept toward the grounded Rouge, who was trying to back away. She felt the wall of the warehouse behind her. "Uh oh… Now I'm trapped, this isn't good."

Just as the Heartless were about to maul Rouge, an arrow of energy shot through the nearest heartless. Hundreds more rained down on the heartless, until there was very few left. A black figure jumped down, holding a red Keyblade. He turned toward Rouge and tossed her the purple Chaos Emerald. "Hold on to this for a while, I'll take care of these guys." Shadow then turned to face the heartless, holding the Keyblade in one hand and his other in a clenched fist. He looked at his Keyblade, then back to the approaching enemies, "Now, let's see how this thing works." Shadow then charged.

* * *

Knuckles and Mickey watched everything that was going on in the Master Emerald. "So, how do Sonic and Shadow have Keyblades?" Knuckles asked. Mickey shrugged and summoned his own Keyblade, as if looking at it would give him the answer.

"I don't know. Maybe the Keyblade has a link to the Chaos Emeralds. From what you told me, it seems the power of the Chaos Emeralds is similar to the power of the Keyblades. They both depend on the power of the heart, and only certain people can use both. It could be possible that they both came from the same source originally, and later separated."

Knuckles pondered on this thought. "That may be true, but I don't think we're in a position to find out right now. Listen, both Sora and Riku mentioned someone named Kairi. Do you think she has something to do with this?"

Mickey thought about it for a while. He then asked, "Can you make the Master Emerald show us where Kairi is? I think we have to find her before we can help Sora and Riku."

"Why?"

"Well, Kairi is one of the seven princesses of heart. They are seven people who have no darkness in their hearts whatsoever. It could be possible that Eggman needs her for something."

"I see." Knuckles placed his hands on the Master Emerald and once again asked for its all seeing eye. A third image appeared on the screen, and Kairi could be seen lying on a metallic floor, asleep. Mickey stepped forward a few steps, then turned back to Knuckles.

"We need to find her and make sure Eggman doesn't get to her. If he does, then we need to get her back!"

Nodding, Knuckles asked the Master Emerald to show them where Kairi was, and the image of a large, black airship appeared. Knuckles recognized the design of the ship and frowned, "I hate to tell you the bad news, but it looks like Eggman already has Kairi. That must be his new Egg Carrier. I would remember that thing anywhere." Knuckles recalled another adventure with Sonic and his friends that involved another model of the Egg Carrier.

Mickey looked at his feet, thinking. He then looked up and stared out at the black clouds. "That means we need to find that airship and rescue Kairi. We'll need Sora and Riku, if they haven't figured out where she is already. It looks like we're back to our original plan then." Mickey sat down on a stair, and placed his head in his hands. "I wonder if _anybody_ knows what is going on."


	5. An Unexpected Randevous

_A/N:[UPDATED] This is it! The big chapter! Enjoy! The usual copyrights, you know 'em, you love 'em, so do i, look on a previous chapter for 'em cause i'm not gonna type 'em._

**Chapter 5: An Unexpected Rendezvous **

Having narrowly avoided another defeat by Eggman's heartless, Sora and Sonic were wandering the deserted city. Sora was still confused at how Sonic's Chaos Emerald transformed into a Keyblade. Thinking about the possible link between the two. He stared at the yellow Chaos Emerald that Sonic had given him upon leaving the empty building. Sonic was swinging his blue Keyblade in the air, with a look of bewilderment still in his eyes.

"Hey, Sora? How do you make your Keyblade disappear?"

Sora thought about that question for a second, "I really don't know how it happens, I just think about how I don't really need it and let go, it disappears on its own."

Sonic stopped walking, closed his eyes, and sighed. He opened his hand and the blue Keyblade disappeared. He looked at his empty hands and smiled, then a sudden look of shock appeared on his face. "Wait! Where'd the Chaos Emerald go?" Sora shrugged, and suggested trying to summon the Keyblade again. Sonic held out his hand, and thought hard. The blue Keyblade materialized in his hand. "I guess it's still there. But how do I use it as a Chaos Emerald?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm amazed at just looking at this thing! It's hard to believe that so much power can be contained in one simple gem."

Sonic looked up at Sora, smirking, then started looking around. He took a minute to think, and started nodding to himself. "Listen, Sora, whatever Eggman wants with your 'Kingdom Hearts,' he wants the Chaos Emeralds as well. We have two, Shadow probably has at least one, so that leaves the other four. We need to find Tails, he has a plane we can use to travel faster."

Not having any idea who either of these people were, if they even were people, but all he could do was trust Sonic. It was, after all, his world. However, one problem still remained. Sonic obviously could travel a lot more than Sora, using a lot less energy, and much faster as well. He never seemed to tire, even after everything they had done so far, while Sora felt he already needed three days worth of sleep.

"Do you know where Tails would be, or do we have to search like we have been with the Chaos Emeralds?" Once he said that, something clicked inside his head.

"Well, it seems my world hasn't been changed at all since Eggman used Chaos Control, so nothing should have moved like it did last time. His workshop is in Central City. If I were to run, it would take me a few hours, but since I'm walking at a human pace, it will take us a few days. Sorry to sound mean, but it's the truth." Sonic couldn't help but smile at that comment.

Sora heard what Sonic had said, but didn't pay much attention to it, except for the fact that it would take them days to go somewhere that it would take Sonic several hours to go. The moment he had said "Chaos Emerald," it hit him. "Sonic! I just figured something out! You told me that the Chaos Emeralds are power directly linked to the heart, right?" Sonic nodded. "Well, during my recent adventure, my friends would lend me the strength of their hearts so I could be stronger for a short time. Maybe I can use the Chaos Emerald in the same way." Sora gripped the Chaos Emerald tighter and closed his eyes, focusing.

Stepping back, Sonic stared as the yellow Chaos Emerald stared glowing brighter and brighter, until the light engulfed Sora. The yellow light turned into what seemed to be a giant blue egg, with Sora inside, which levitated three feet in the air. Cracks appeared on the egg, light emitting from inside the egg. Suddenly the egg shattered, and Sora emerged with different colored clothes. His black hooded vest turned blue, and his gray undershirt turned navy with black flames on the sleeves. His shorts changed to the same color as his undershirt, and his shoes glowed with a blue aura. When he landed on the ground, his feet didn't touch the ground, but a layer of that same aura that his shoes glowed with. He used the aura like artificial ice and skated on it toward Sonic.

"This is the form I take when my friend Donald, who used magic, would lend me his strength. My magic abilities are enhanced, I can fire magic shots from my Keyblade, and more importantly, I can travel faster with less energy." Sonic smiled upon hearing this. "This way, we can find Tails in less time."

Sonic stretched his legs, smiling. "Well then, maybe now you won't be so boring." At that, Sonic sped off, with Sora following close by.

* * *

Shadow had already defeated the remaining heartless, and all that was left was the artificial Chaos heartless, and they were both struggling to destroy it.

"Riku! You have to destroy the skull!"

"You think I haven't figured that out? You try getting close enough to it!"

That task was easier said than done. The heartless never stopped attacking, but it never left the one spot. Riku tried to charge, but it shot him with lasers in its eyes. Shadow tried to run quickly at it and jump at its head, but the heartless inflated itself with water, shielding the skull. Riku backed up and used his dark aura shots to keep a distance away. Shadow ran next to Riku, trying to figure out what to do.

"We need to work together to defeat this thing, Shadow. I don't think it has a limitless amount of water, so what we can do is try to make it expand its arms and have the other one of us attack the skull when it can't shield itself." Shadow nodded and the two split up again.

Riku charged, holding his Keyblade defensively, expecting the heartless to whip at him. Right on cue, the artificial chaos lashed its arms at Riku who blocked it with his Keyblade, and the two went into a power struggle. All the while Shadow was running along the warehouse, picking up speed. He ran up the building, then jumped off the top to attack from an aerial angle. To Riku's surprise, Shadow threw his Keyblade at the heartless. The Keyblade spun and stuck right into the heartless's head, but the skull didn't break. Still falling, Shadow curled up his fist and landed atop the heartless, and punched the skull, shattering it to pieces. The water underneath the skull fell to the ground and, unlike the previous times, stayed in one place.

"Do you realize how long it took me to make that heartless?" Eggman's voice boomed from the Egg Carrier. "The process of creating a Heartless is a lot more difficult than you think! Gah! They are proving to be less useful than I thought... How about a deal?"

Riku looked up at the airship, "Go on."

"I will trade you the girl, if you give me the two Chaos Emeralds that you have. If not, then there will be consequences."

Shadow, Riku, and Rouge looked at each other, then Riku looked up. "Give us two minutes to talk about this."

"You've got one."

The group huddled and spoke quietly so Eggman couldn't hear them. Shadow was the first to speak up. "We can't give the doctor the Chaos Emeralds. There is no arguing that."

Riku nodded, "I know that, but maybe we can make him think we're going on that thing to give them to him, cause trouble, save Kairi, then use Chaos Control to get out of there before Eggman catches us. What do you think?"

Rouge liked the idea, but Shadow was skeptical. "The doctor's smart, he'll expect us to plan something. I don't even thing he will let us on his ship."

"There's only one way to find out," Riku said looking up, then shouted to the airship. "Hey! We've got a deal for you. We'll trade you the Chaos Emeralds for Kairi, but the only way that will happen is if we go and give them to you ourselves." While Eggman thought, Shadow turned and told something to Rouge.

After a minute, Eggman's voice came from the carrier. "Or, I can just send down more heartless and take those Emeralds by force, and have both the Emeralds AND the girl." At that note, hundreds of heartless started raining from the clouds, and the Egg Carrier ascended above the clouds once again. Shadow nodded at Rouge and she, holding the purple Chaos Emerald, jumped up and flew off.

Grabbing Riku's arm, Shadow held his Keyblade in front of him. "I hope this works... Chaos Control!" Just as last time, a flash of light overwhelmed them, and the warehouse, the heartless, and the Egg Carrier disappeared.

Riku looked around. They were standing on top of a tall building. In every direction, there were buildings all the way to the horizon. Despite the dark clouds, they could tell that the sun was setting. "Where did Rouge go? And where are we?"

Shadow walked to the edge of the building and looked down. He then turned around to Riku. "I told Rouge that if Eggman tried anything to get the Chaos Emeralds, we would split them up, and meet here later one."

Riku nodded, looked around again, then asked, "And where is 'here?'"

"This," Shadow said, turning around to face the city, "is Central City."

"I see... and what is _that?_" Riku asked, pointing to a giant object descending from the clouds. "Is that... an island?"

* * *

Knuckles looked into the Master Emerald and smiled. "Somehow, I had a feeling something like this would happen."

Mickey was confused, "What did you know would be happening?"

"Everybody is going to Central City. Shadow and Riku just got there, and Sonic and Sora have almost made it."

Mickey looked around and realized that the island was dropping. "Where are we? And why are we falling?"

Knuckles turned to Mickey, still smiling. "The answer to both of those questions is; We're here!" Just as he said so, the surface of the island pushed through the clouds. The sunset was replaced by a dark fog.

Mickey looked at Knuckles questioningly. "Do you mean we're where everybody else is going? Central City?" Knuckles nodded and suddenly the dark fog was lifted. Mickey turned away from the Master Emerald to look out at the city, but instead saw something much more ominous. "Knuckles, look!"

Hearing the panic in Mickey's voice, Knuckles spun quickly around, to find hundreds of heartless surrounding the pyramid, and climbing. "They must have come from the cloud! Hold them off while I stop the island! Then I'll help you take care of the rest of them!" Mickey nodded at Knuckles, summoned his Keyblade, and prepared to fight.

The first heartless jumped at Mickey, who jumped even higher, and threw his Keyblade down at the heartless. The Keyblade sliced through it, and stabbed into the ground. Mickey landed next to his Keyblade, and pulled it out from the ground. He ran at another and slashed at it. A dozen heartless formed a circle around Mickey, and started to close in. Mickey lunged forward and spun, destroying two at once. He then threw the Keyblade into a crowd of heartless, cutting through them all. Like a boomerang the Keyblade spun around and flew back into Mickey's hand. He then felt the Island stop moving.

Having stopped the Island where they needed to be, Knuckles decided to join the fray. He jumped off the top of the pyramid and landed on a heartless with his fist. He did a front flip from this and kicked another to the ground. On top of it, he slammed his fist into its head. The heartless dissolved into the air, and Knuckles' hand had punched through the ground. He pulled it out, spun around, and pounded through the third with the back of his fist. He noticed that when he destroyed the heartless, they merely dissolved. When Mickey did so, a heart came out and disappeared into the air. _What could that mean?_ Knuckles thought to himself.

After a few minutes of fighting, Knuckles and Mickey were standing back to back, still surrounded by approximately fifty heartless. They both knew they couldn't take them all. Suddenly an odd sensation spread through the two. Knuckles turned his head slightly to Mickey, while punching the heartless jumping at him. "Do you feel that?" Mickey nodded.

"What is it?"

"It feels like Chaos Control!" Knuckles turned back to the heartless, grabbed one and threw it into the crowd, taking several to the ground with it. Moments later, a red light appeared inside the Heartless horde. It shone brightly, and from the light Shadow and Riku emerged. The light faded away, and after realizing what was going on they entered the brawl.

Riku immediately started slashing away at the heartless, and Shadow quickly zoomed to the outside of the circle. Once outside, Shadow aimed his Keyblade at a group of heartless. "Chaos Spear!" He shouted, and yellow spears of energy shot from the Keyblade, impaling many heartless. They dissolved and their hearts flew and disappeared into the air. Shadow smirked, and did this a few more times before running into the group, itching for some close combat.

Riku was fighting his way through the crowd towards the center of the circle. He had just noticed King Mickey, and was immensely surprised. He threw his Keyblade, much like Mickey did, and used his dark aura to destroy several more heartless. His Keyblade spun back into Riku's hand, and he slashed horizontally at the heartless in front of him while running. After a few seconds of running he made it into the center, to find Mickey and Knuckles, whom he had no idea who that was, also fighting.

"Hiya Riku!" King Mickey exclaimed, while slicing through a heartless to his right. "It took you long enough to show up!"

"Yeah!" Knuckles agreed, whilst punching through two heartless at the same time.

Riku stood confused, oblivious to the heartless surrounding him. "Who are you?" He asked Knuckles. By this time, Shadow had joined the group.

"Riku, focus! There's no time for introductions!" Shadow yelled, and Riku snapped out of his confusion and returned to the fight. When the four were huddled, the fight became much easier, since they needed to focus on only a portion of space instead of an entire 360 degree area if they were fighting individually. They hacked, slashed, and punched through the remaining heartless, and when the last one was defeated, Knuckles let out a large sigh. He turned to Riku and held out his large hand.

"My name's Knuckles the Echidna. I'm the guardian of Angel Island. I protect the Master Emerald," he gestured his hand towards the giant gem on top of the pyramid, " as well as watch over things on the surface. I mostly keep Eggman in check to make sure he isn't scheming anything." Riku nodded, but was somewhat more interested in something else. He turned to King Mickey with a big question in mind, but Mickey already anticipated it.

"I don't really know how I got here, Riku. One minute I was sitting in Disney Castle's observatory, and I saw a bright, white light. The next thing that happened was I woke up on this island, and I found Knuckles looking into his Emerald. We've been watching you and Sora to try to get to you two. It turns out Sora is on his way here!"

"What!" Riku was about to ask five more questions at the same time, but Shadow cut in.

"Listen, I don't think this is the best place to talk. We need to get to Tails' workshop." Everyone agreed and put their hands in the middle so Shadow could use Chaos Control to get them off the island.

Right before Shadow was about to do so, there was a large thud and the island shook. The four looked up onto the pyramid to see a giant, dragon-like robot standing above the Master Emerald. It had the body shape and spikes of Godzilla, but with long front arms with its wings on them. It had a long tail with spikes on the end, like an ankylosaur, and a long neck with a head shaped like a velociraptor. It let out a loud roar, then aimed its head toward the group, with its mouth still open. Eggman's voice came out if it.

"So, what do you think of my Egg Dragoon? Do you like it?"

Knuckles raised his fists, "I think I'll like it more as scrap metal!"

"Not so fast, my quick-to-act friend," Eggman said. "You might like to see what my Dragoon is going to do first." At this the robotic dragon pushed its front legs downward, thrusting itself up onto its hind legs. On its chest was a large hole and, around the hole, were seven smaller ones. Inside one of the smaller ones was something green that was shining. The Dragoon fell forward onto the Master Emerald and landed with a bang. When it picked itself up, the Master Emerald was removed from its pedestal, and was now placed inside the large hole in the robot's chest.

Knuckles charged at the Dragoon and jumped aiming to punch its head. The robot lowered its head, allowed Knuckles to pass over, then rammed him, sending him flying. Shadow summoned his Keyblade, used Chaos Control to warp into midair, caught Knuckles and warped back to the ground.

"Thanks, Shadow," Knuckles said on all fours. Shadow gave a slight nod at Knuckles, then took his turn to go at the dragon. Halfway there, his Keyblade shone, then transformed back into the Chaos Emerald, but the shine was gone.

"We can't have you using your Chaos Emerald against my lovely Dragoon!" Eggman's voice laughed from the robot. "Now that your Chaos Emerald has no power, GIVE IT TO ME!"

Shadow stared at the red rock in his hand. He then shouted at the Dragoon, "What did you do?"

It wasn't Eggman who answered, but Knuckles, still weak from his impact with the robot's head. "It's using the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald has the power to neutralize all of the Chaos Emeralds in the area. As long as we're around that thing, we can't use the Chaos Emeralds!"

"Exactly," Eggman's voice sinisterly stated, "as I said before, since your Chaos Emerald has no power in it, Shadow, why don't you give it to me?"

"You'll have to take it from me."

"Fine. Dragoon, destroy Angel Island! Blow it to bits!" Immediately after Eggman's order, the dragon robot pounded its wings down, taking off. When it was about ten feet in the air, a bright light shone from the Master Emerald as well as the green Chaos Emerald. The only thing the group could do was watch helplessly as the Dragoon fired a powerful green beam from its mouth, downward into the top of the pyramid. The island shook as the pyramid shattered, and cracks formed on the surface. A low rumbling sound started to fill their ears.

Riku shouted to the other three, "We have to get off this island before it explodes!"

"How do we do that? Shadow can't use Chaos Control with that thing around here! What else can we do?" Mickey asked hopelessly.

"Somehow we have to get the Dragoon far enough away for the Master Emerald's power to be out of reach of Shadow's Chaos Emerald." Knuckles looked at Shadow, then to the Dragoon. "How we're going to do that, I don't know.

Shadow looked up and smirked. "I think someone does," he said, pointing to the sky. They all looked up to see Rouge flying high above, holding the purple Chaos Emerald, also missing its light.

"Hey, you! Scrap metal! Look at this!" Rouge shouted while waving her Chaos Emerald around. She then darted off into the distance.

Eggman ordered the Egg Dragoon, "Go after her, she'll put up less of a fight than Shadow would." At that, the robotic dragon pumped its wings, and flew off after Rouge.

"What is she doing?" Riku shouted at Shadow. Instead, Knuckles responded to his question.

"She's making the Dragoon get far enough so the Master Emerald's effect won't be able to reach here. The only problem," He started as he glared at Shadow, "is that without the Master Emerald within the vicinity, Angel Island is going to fall to the ground." It seemed with perfect synchronization they all felt the island dropping fast. "That means in a few seconds Central City Park is about to have large boulders fall on it. Let's hope Rouge gets away soon or else we'll be-"

Shadow cut him off by thrusting his palm onto Knuckles' chest, knocking him into Riku and onto the ground. He then grabbed Mickey's arm, placed his foot on Riku's leg, and squeezed his glowing Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Control!"

The crumbling, falling island disappeared inside a red light, and was replaced by a clear view of the entire city atop a rooftop. Still on the ground, Riku kicked Knuckles off of him, and stood up for himself. He did a 360 to get a view of where they were. Something caught his eye that made him stop in his tracks. "Hey! Look!" He shouted, still unused to the sudden quiet, while pointing his finger in the direction of what he saw.

The four turned to see a very incredible sight. In the distance, about two miles away, they saw Angel Island falling to the ground. It had lost its original shape, and looked like a giant raindrop of rocks. It seemed to take forever falling. Knuckles was muttering to himself "No, no, no, please no," over and over. When it finally hit the ground, a giant cloud appeared. They saw windows shattering in a distance coming nearer, until finally the shockwave of sound hit them like a ton of bricks. The force of the impact, even at that distance, knocked Mickey down.

When the sound and shock subsided, Mickey stood up and looked around. "Where did you take us, Shadow?"

A somewhat high pitched voice answered them from behind. "This is my workshop." They all turned around to see a yellow-orange fox that stood on two legs. It had two tails with white fur on their tips. The fox held its arms out to show the large building they were standing on top of. The building looked like a large, cement box. The outside had a metal floor with fencing a hundred feet away from the building on all sides.

Shadow stepped forward, "Tails, the doctor destroyed Angel Island while we were still on it. We needed somewhere to go, and Sonic is on his way, it is likely he will come here." Tails nodded, then motioned towards the door he had used to get to the roof.

Just when everybody was about to enter the workshop, Mickey saw something in the sky, then shouted in shock. "Look!" They looked up to see the Egg Dragoon flying towards the workshop, quickly. Eggman's voice boomed from the robot.

"Now that that traitor, Rouge, is dealt with, where were we? Oh, that's right, taking the Chaos Emerald from you, Shadow. Dragoon, use the Master Emerald so they can't escape again, and blow them to oblivion!"

The light in Shadow's Chaos Emerald once again faded away, but he wasn't paying attention to it. The Master Emerald shone in the dragon's chest, and the same green energy that was used to destroy Angel Island was aimed at Tails' workshop, and the five on top of it. "Rouge," Shadow muttered under his breath, and waited for the right moment. The minute the dragon fired its blast, Shadow ran off in the direction of the beast.

"Shadow! Where are you going?" Knuckles called after him. He then looked at the green beam getting closer and closer, as Tails walked next to him. "We'll never get out in time, that blast is too strong. It has the powers of the Master Emerald and two Chaos Emeralds. There's nothing we can do."

Riku and Mickey stared as the impending disaster neared. They looked at Knuckles and Tails, then at each other. "Well," Riku started, "I guess it's been a good run." Everyone nodded and prepared for the worst.

The next thing that happened, Riku knew he would never figure out. Moments before the blast hit, something blue flashed quickly, and as fast as it came, it was gone. So were Knuckles and Tails. Riku and Mickey glanced at each other.

"Defense!" Someone yelled behind them, but by the time they looked, everything was green. There was a loud, roaring, explosion sound, but Riku didn't feel any pain. He tried yelling, but no sound came out of his voice. It was drowned out by the sound of the blast, and everything was still green. After what felt like hours, the explosion finally quieted down, and the green faded away.

When the light had disappeared, they were on the ground, with Tails' warehouse completely obliterated. There seemed to be a glass-like dome surrounding them. At the center of the dome was Sora, in his normal form, holding his Keyblade high. He turned his head slightly to look at Riku, and beamed. He then looked back at the robot.

"And now," he said, circling his Keyblade down and thrusting it back up, aimed at the Egg Dragoon, "Reflect!" A giant green beam shot from the tip of the Keyblade, shattering the "glass" sphere in the process. It seemed to be just as big as the blast that had initially been aimed at them. The dragon tried to flap its wings quickly and fly out of the blast's range, but it was too late. The beam hit the Dragoon square in the back, and blasted it high into the sky. When the beam dissipated, the dragon started to fall. It crashed onto the ground a minute later, roughly a mile away.

Sora turned to Riku, smiling. "I guess that's it."

"Not so fast, Sora!" Eggman's voice came from somewhere. The three Keyblade wielders looked into the sky to see the Egg Carrier flying above. "Just because you knocked down my Egg Dragoon, doesn't mean it's out for the count! He just needs a tune-up, and he'll be up and flying in no time. You might want to use this time to surrender the Chaos Emeralds to me. If you don't within twelve hours, I will attack the entire planet with everything I've got!"

They saw the Dragoon weakly flying upwards to land on the Egg Carrier. The moment it did, the airship flew above the dark clouds.

"So, that isn't it then?" Sora asked partially to himself and partially to the other two. He shrugged and offered his hand to Riku, who had somehow during the recent madness wound up on the ground. He shook it away, and sat down, leaning back on his arms.

He was the first to snap. "WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND HERE!"


	6. Mission Intermission

_Note [UPDATED]: Sorry it took me so long to get this post up. I've been busy and had writer's block =[. I'll try to keep the posts somewhat close, but if I don't... don't kill me... Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, I was trying something a little different in this one so tell me what you think. As always, I don't own Disney, Kingdom Hearts, nor Sonic the Hedgehog or any of their respective characters. They are owned by Disney, Square Enix, and Sega, respectively._

**Chapter 6: Mission Intermission**

Night had finally fallen on Central City. Sonic returned with Tails and Knuckles several minutes after Eggman's departure. They had decided to stay at the ruined workshop until Shadow returned. They shared their stories, trying to make sense of everything that was happening.

"So, you're telling me that you can fuse incompletely with the Chaos Emeralds?" Tails asked Sora, who nodded. "That's incredible! If one Chaos Emerald has the power to transform you, I wonder what can happen with all seven." As Tails seemed to get lost in his own thoughts. Knuckles took Tails' place.

"So this means that we have a total of three Chaos Emeralds, since that robot took Rouge's Chaos Emerald. Am I right?" Sora held up his, and Sonic did the same. He was holding a normal Chaos Emerald instead of a Keyblade.

"Well," Riku said, "assuming Shadow still has his when he gets back, then it seems you're right."

Pounding his fists together, Knuckles gave his opinion, "We should go now to find the last two before Eggman does!"

Riku shook his head, "It seems like a good idea, but nighttime is the worst time of all with the heartless around. They are more powerful in darkness. We need to find a safe place to hide out for the night, then we'll set off to find the Chaos Emeralds in the morning."

Disagreeing, Sora quickly responded to Riku's motion. "I'm not going to wait any more, Riku! Did you forget who your friends are? We need to find Kairi! She could be in serious trouble right now, and we have no idea where she is!"

Knuckles and Mickey looked at each other with sad expressions. Mickey took a step towards Sora and Riku, "Actually, I know where she is. She's on the Egg Carrier..." Sora tackled the king within seconds.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US EARLIER!" He roared, "We could have tried to get on board while it was still here! Now we have no idea where it is!" Sora seemed close to tears.

"Sora! Get a grip!" Riku shouted, pulling him off of Mickey. He stood Sora upright, and place his hand on Sora's shoulder. Sora's heavy breathing started to fade, as Mickey brushed himself off. Riku softened his voice, and calmly told Sora so nobody could hear, "I understand how you're feeling right now. I saw you two on the paopu tree before the explosion, so I know how much you want to find her, but we need to focus. The only thing we can do right now is help them find the last Chaos Emeralds, that way we can make contact with Eggman and try to get her back, before he hurts anybody else. Okay?"

Sora sighed. He looked down and and stood silently for a minute. Finally, he nodded, wiping his eyes, "Okay, but the first chance to save her I get, I'm taking it." He took Riku's arm off of his shoulder, turned around, and walked to where the wall should have been in the destroyed workshop.

Tails broke the silence. "Since both Angel Island and my workshop are gone, and Sonic doesn't really live anywhere, where will we stay for the night?" The question stumped everyone.

"Uhh..." Knuckles started, but was cut off.

"I guess that only leaves one place left." Someone said from behind Sora. He turned around to see a black hedgehog that looked a lot like Sonic. In his arms was a female bat. She had bruises all over her body. She had many cuts on her right hand, and there was a large tear in her left wing.

Everyone crowded around the two. Rouge weakly turned her head and opened her eyes, barely, to show she was still conscious. Shadow sadly looked down at Rouge, then back at the others. "I don't know what we can do here..."

Riku and Mickey looked at Sora, who nodded and summoned his Keyblade. Still slightly fuming, he held out his Keyblade. "Heal," he said monotonously. Showered in the healing green light, Rouge's bruises magically disappeared. Like a zipper, her cuts stitched themselves together and faded away, and the rip in her wing sewed itself back to normal.

When the light faded, Rouge fully opened her eyes. She looked up at Sora and said, "Thanks." Then she looked at her rescuer, "You too, Shadow." At that, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. Turning slightly red he looked her in the eyes. Rouge smiled and, still in his arms, slowly started leaning upward. Her head seemed to get closer and closer to his. Everyone watched, waiting for the next second to occur when they would connect.

Shadow dropped her to the ground and walked away.

"Hey!" she yelled at him, "That's no way to treat an injured lady!"

"Be glad I didn't throw you, instead!" he snarled, turning his head back to her. "If you try something like _that_ again, I just might." He then changed the topic as he stepped in front of Sonic. "Now, let me see it."

"See what?" Sonic shrugged. Shadow rolled his eyes and raised his right arm to the side. The red Chaos Keyblade appeared in his hand in a red flash. Sonic was amazed, "Woah! You have one too?"

"Yes, now show me yours."

"Okay, okay." Sonic held his Chaos Emerald in his hand, closed his eyes, and squeezed the gem. It glowed and transformed into the blue Keyblade. He stepped away from Shadow, and swung it in the air. While doing so, he asked, "Have you learned anything interesting about it yet? Cause I only know how to hit stuff with it."

Shadow chuckled at how simple Sonic was. "It works just like the Chaos Emeralds. You can still use Chaos powers with it. That's all I figured out."

"Speaking of Chaos powers," Knuckles jumped into the conversation, "shouldn't we be using them to get somewhere safe right about now?" Everyone agreed and after a minute of preparation, they had all formed a circle and placed their hands in the middle. Shadow touched his Keyblade to the top hand, belonging to Riku.

"Chaos Control!"

They landed in front of a warehouse familiar to all but Sora and the Sonic team. Riku helped Sora, who was unused to the power of Chaos Control, off the ground. "You learn something new every day, huh Sora?"

"Yeah. That was definitely something new." Sora laughed while trying to crack his back. He looked up, hoping to see stars, but remembered quickly of the presence of Eggman's ominous black clouds. "We need to get inside fast, before the heartless show up. Just because he said he would attack the world in twenty four hours, doesn't mean he won't attack us on our own."

"He's right," Shadow said, causing Riku confusion, "Everyone, get inside." Rouge opened the door, and the eight entered the warehouse. Once inside, Shadow once again took the lead. "We'll all need rest for whatever happens tomorrow. We might wind up fighting that Dragoon again, so we need to be ready." They all nodded, and started looking for places to sleep. As they were about to retire, something happened to Sora.

His stomach growled. "Um, do you have any food? I haven't eaten in a day, and we've been running nonstop, so I could probably eat an entire cow right now."

Everybody except Shadow laughed as Riku showed Sora to the refrigerator.

* * *

Sora awoke in a cold sweat. He sat up and rubbed the sweat from his forehead, then rubbed his temple. "Woah..." He whispered to himself, conscious of everyone else sleeping around him, "What a nightmare." As he began to recall the dream, he realized it was already beginning to fade from his memory.

From what he remembered, he was standing atop the Paopu tree on Destiny Islands, when everything faded to white. The tree dissolved, and Sora started falling. He landed on what seemed like air in an endless space of white. He spun around to see if there was anything that wasn't white. Nothing. Sora couldn't remember what came next, but at a certain point he was staring face to face with Kairi inside the white room. He started running towards her, but their distance stayed the same. Suddenly, hundreds of heartless appeared and surrounded Kairi.

That was all Sora could remember. He quietly stood up and rummaged through his pockets. He felt something large and warm, and he pulled it out to reveal his yellow Chaos Emerald. The glow faintly illuminated the room, which gave Sora the light enough to find the door. He did a slow 360 to the floor to see who was where. He plotted out his course to the door as to avoid having to step over Riku, who would most likely wake up if he tried. Luckily, Riku was asleep on the couch, as well with Knuckles, twisted away from each other from what seemed to be a fight over who got to use the couch.

Sora took his first step towards the door, and his foot landed an inch from Tails' nose. He cautiously moved his foot over Tails, head, and twisted it to place it in the narrow space between Tails' head and Rouge's foot. He took his back foot, made sure it didn't hit Tails' head and then sidestepped away from Rouge. He stared at the two remaining challenges that blocked him and the door; King Mickey, and Sonic.

Mickey was the easy one, because he was laying sideways parallel to the door, so all Sora had to do was step over. Sonic was much trickier. He was sitting at the corner right next to the door, leaning his head back on the wall, with his foot in a position where if Sora opened the door to a certain point, it would hit his foot. Sora held the Chaos Emerald to Sonic, and placed his hand on the door, keeping his eyes on Sonic. He turned the knob and slowly opened the door. Every small sound the door made was an explosion to Sora, and he kept checking around, hoping nobody woke up. He watched the bottom of the door and stopped opening half a foot before it would make contact with Sonic's foot. He held the door in place and squeezed through the opening. He quietly closed the door when he was out.

Sora sighed and leaned his back on the door, then looked up. Despite the darkness in the sky, there was still a soft light in the horizon. "Sunrise, maybe?" Sora asked himself, then he started walking away from the lone warehouse. When he was a good distance, he turned around and looked back, "I wonder why the military would build a warehouse in such a deserted area?" Sora shrugged, then turned back towards the sunrise. "Oh, well. The time for questions is over. Sorry, Riku, but I can't waste time looking for those Emeralds if every second we take is a second lost for Kairi's safety."

He squeezed the Chaos Emerald tightly in his hand, and felt its warm glow intensify as he closed his eyes. The light engulfed him as he felt the Emerald fade away from his hand, the energy tingled through his entire body. When the power inside reached its peak, the egg of energy shattered, and Sora opened his eyes. He lowered to the ground, and skated around in a circle, giving his Wisdom form a stretch. He then looked up and said to the sky, "I don't know where you are, Eggman, but I will find you and save Kairi!" He did a quick spin and sped off towards the sunrise.

* * *

What Sora didn't know was when he closed the door to the warehouse, the door slightly vibrated on the wall and woke Sonic. Shaking the odd vibration off as nothing, Sonic yawned and stretched his arms. He stood up and felt around the wall, trying to find the light switch. "Hmm," He whispered to himself, "I was sure I slept right under it." He reached up a little bit, and after a few more seconds he finally found it. He flipped the switch and a bright light flooded the room.

Knuckles was the first to react by jumping in the air and, by reflex, punched Riku in the face. The intensity of the punch rolled Riku off the couch, flat onto one of Tails' tails. He immediately jumped up and tugged on his tail. He pulled hard, and finally freed his trapped tail, but the recoil from the pull made him fall backwards, and trip over Rouge. Out of her own reflex she shot up into midair and hovered in a fighting pose, circling to find whatever enemy might be around.

Sonic exploded with laughter at this chain reaction. Knuckles stepped off the couch and chuckled to himself about what just happened, while Riku picked himself up, rubbing his red cheek. He looked around as everybody recovered from the pandemonium. As he did so, he noticed three things: First, somehow King Mickey was still asleep, second and third, Sora _and_ Shadow were missing. "Where's Sora?" he asked aloud, thinking nobody would hear anyways.

Everybody turned towards Riku in silence, then looked at the vacant space that Sora had slept in. Rouge made the next statement, "Shadow's gone too."

"Yeah, but Shadow is always gone. That's normal," Knuckles responded. Rouge nodded and shrugged.

Tails turned to Riku, remembering Sora's outburst from the previous night, "Do you think he would go after Eggman alone?" Riku's eyes widened, and then he nodded.

"Knowing him, probably."

"So what do we do?" Sonic asked, taking a step to Mickey to wake him up.

Riku shrugged, but Tails had an idea, "Sonic," Sonic stopped the playful kick he was about to deliver to Mickey and stood straight up, "you try to find Sora on foot. I have a prototype jet in one of my secret hangers a few miles from here. It can carry two others." Knuckles and Rouge looked at each other, and Riku looked at the sleeping king.

"I think Mickey and Riku should go. They know Sora more and might be able to talk him out of it." Sonic took a step towards the door while saying this, "Either way, they have the Keyblades in case something happens on the way to the hangar."

Knuckles nodded, "That's fine. Rouge and I can stay here and keep watch," he then turned to Rouge, "Do you have any radios in here? We can use that to keep in touch with Tails." Rouge nodded and walked over to a crate in the corner of the room.

Tails turned to Sonic, "Okay, I think we're-." He stopped when he realized he was talking to a wall. He sighed and shook his head, "Figured. Okay Sonic's gone, I guess that means we can leave too. Let's go before it gets any later." Tails checked his watch, "We have three hours before Eggman's invasion begins."

Riku walked towards the door, and stopped at the king. Squatting down, Riku nudged him on the side. Mickey opened his eyes, sat up, and looked around. He looked up at Riku, who said, "Time to go," and stood up. Mickey stood up too and stretched his arms much like Sonic did.

"What'd I miss? Where're we goin'?" Riku chuckled and followed Tails out the door, motioning for Mickey to follow.

* * *

Sora had been running, well, skating, for about an hour. With no luck at finding the Egg Carrier, he took a break at the edge of the deserted city he had been through with Sonic the previous day. He looked up at the sky and sighed, then angrily shouted, "Where are you?" No response, obviously. He did a speed spin to turn around and stared down the main road of the city. He allowed his feet to actually touch the ground, but remained in his wisdom form.

He picked up a rock and threw it as far as he could. He then sighed and stared at the ground, slightly depressed. "You're brave, but stupid," a voice came from behind him. Sora quickly turned around and looked down to see a dark figure approaching him.

"Shadow? What are you doing here?"

Shadow stopped next to Sora and stared down the road while answering, "If you're looking for the Egg Carrier, you'll never be able to get to it."

Sora looked down angrily, "And why not?"

"You have no idea what the doctor is capable of. That Egg Dragoon is just a taste of what he can do."

"So you're saying that I'm not strong enough?"

With a serious expression on his face, Shadow blatantly replied, "Yes. Now, we need to go back so we can get together with the others. Attacking the Egg Carrier will take planning."

"I see," Sora said while taking a step forward down the main road. "So you're here to bring me back then?"

Shadow started walking and kept pace with Sora, "Under any other circumstances, I wouldn't be doing this. Especially on my own will. But seeing as the world seems to need you and your Keyblade, Yes."

Speeding up, Sora replied, "Well, too bad. I'm not going to wait to save Kairi if she might be in trouble right now!"

"Eggman will destroy you! You must come back!" Shadow rose his voice and started running as Sora began the same.

"I don't care! I'd rather try than hide out doing nothing!" Sora allowed the magic to again flow to his feet and lift him off the ground. His speed increased twenty-fold when he started skating. As he cleared the last building of the deserted city, Shadow's voice came from next to him.

"I have to say I like your style," He said as he skated alongside Sora with his air shoes.

"What!" Sora was astounded.

"I guess Sonic never told you; I'm just as fast as he is," He paused as Sora continued looked down at him in shock, "if not faster. Now, We both know I'm faster than you, so the only way you're not going back," Shadow coolly stated as he summoned his Keyblade, "Is if you're better than me."

Sora's Keyblade appeared in his hand as he glared at Shadow. "So we're even then? One Keyblade against one Keyblade and one Chaos Emerald against one Chaos Emerald?"

"The difference," Shadow started, "Is that we both know how to fight with a sword, but only one of us knows how to truly use the Chaos Emeralds."

"You got me there."

"You've been using those Emeralds without knowing anything about them. That ends now. It's time to show you the true power of Chaos Control!" Shadow yelled as he warped to execute his first attack on Sora.


	7. Forming Fights: Part 1

_A/N[UPDATED]: Whew! This chapter is turning out so long that I decided to split it into two parts so I don't keep you waiting any more. I hope you like the long awaited Sora VS Shadow fight, and then some. The usual Copyrights. Please review! I want to see how you think I'm doing! Thanks a lot, and Enjoy!_

**Chapter 7**

** Forming Fight(s): Part 1  
**

Shadow warped behind Sora in midair and swung the Keyblade at his back. Sora spun on the magic of his wisdom form and quickly blocked it, and then pulled back and lunged at Shadow, who did a back flip in the air to dodge, and landed. He immediately started high speed skating to catch up to Sora. Once he caught up he slashed at Sora, who speedily spun and deflected it. He responded with a vertical slice, which Shadow blocked at an angle so Sora's Keyblade would slide down the shaft. They continued this quick back and forth a few more times.

Sora spun and skated backwards while Shadow came up to his front. He jumped and diagonally slashed at Sora, who spiraled out of the way and used his spinning momentum to add to his next slice. When the Keyblade would have made impact, it flew through air instead. Sora looked around, then turned back around and skated forward. He scanned everywhere for Shadow, but didn't see a thing.

Suddenly, a yellow light whizzed past his head from the right. He looked in the direction to see hundreds of yellow energy spears flying towards him. Sora quickly held his Keyblade sideways toward the onslaught of light and shouted, "Defense!" Just as the Chaos Spears were seven feet away from him, a dome of what seemed like glass appeared around him. The spears faded into the dome until the last one was gone.

Soar aimed his Keyblade at the dark figure in the distance, "Reflect!" A giant beam of yellow light fired from his Keyblade. It struck the ground where Shadow was running and exploded on impact. Sora stopped running and watched the smoke clear. When it did, there was nothing but rocks. Sora sighed and murmured, "Not this again." He raised his Keyblade in the air in defense as Shadow appeared above him.

Their Keyblades collided in midair, and Shadow pushed off of Sora's with his own and back flipped several feet in front of Sora. Sora immediately began skating again, and Shadow started shortly after. When he reached full speed, which didn't take long, he was on Sora's right. Sora skated at an angle away from Shadow and pointed his Keyblade at him. Blue magic surged through his Keyblade and fired out of the end like a machine gun.

Shadow switched his Keyblade to his left hand and used it to deflect every strike. He then used the same technique utilizing his Chaos Spears. Sora deflected those too. The two then separated even further and pointed their Keyblades at each other. Sora fired his Wisdom Shots while Shadow fired his Chaos Spears to no end. The yellow and blue energy bullets crashed in the middle of them creating a fascinating light show.

Sora and Shadow stopped skating forward and started circling, while still attacking, creating a giant energy inferno in the center of the circle. Sora stopped using his Wisdom Shots and instead used his defense spell to create his protective magic dome. He then charged into the glowing yellow and blue mess, allowing his dome to absorb the shots. He skated right through the blast zone, and slammed his Keyblade into an unexpecting Shadow, shattering his defense spell. Shadow raised his Keyblade in defense and the impact pushed him back a few feet.

The two stood in one place while putting all their strength into their pushes. Shadow used Chaos Control to warp behind Sora, causing Sora to slash into nothing and fall off balance. Shadow used this opportunity to club Sora with the back of his Keyblade from behind with all his might, sending Sora away a few feet.

When Sora recovered, Shadow was charging again. The moment Shadow jumped at him, Sora pointed his Keyblade, "Reflect!" he shouted, and the accumulated energy from the Chaos Spears blasted at Shadow. When the beam faded from Sora's Keyblade, Shadow lay motionless on the ground in front of him.

Having finally finished the fight, Sora sighed and landed on the ground, but once again remained in his form, just in case. Out of breath, Sora tiredly walked to Shadow, who was weakly struggling to get up. He stabbed his Keyblade into the ground and used it as a crutch to stand up. Sora pointed his own Keyblade at Shadow.

"Heal," He said, much to Shadow's surprise. Green light glowed over Shadow as every injury he had sustained disappeared.

"What?" Shadow questioned as he pulled his Keyblade from the ground and stood up straight.

"Well," Sora started, "If you think I'll be so helpless against Eggman, then why don't you come with me? Teaming up would make things much easier on both of us."

"Hmph," Shadow turned his head and looked to the side, "I guess you aren't so stupid."

Sora smiled and held out his hand, "So, do we have a deal?" Shadow took it and nodded, and when their hands parted, Sora looked up and around. "Okay then, where do we start?"

"Sora," Shadow said with a soft force. Sora looked down to find Shadow's eyes fixated on a point far away. Looming in the distance stood a giant black tornado emerging from the black clouds above. Black rain seemed to fall from the sky around the tornado into the mountain range below. "Maybe we should start there."

"Really? I had never thought so," Sora chuckled and took a few steps in the direction of the vortex. Shadow started walking beside him. The two made eye contact and kept walking. "Let's go," Sora whispered, and the two immediately started high speed skating to whatever was waiting inside the mountain.

* * *

When the two got closer, they realized that the black rain was, in fact, hundreds of shadow Heartless. What they didn't see, however, was the presence of gray robots also falling with the Heartless. The robots were in the shape cubes with tube-like arms extending from opposite sides. There was a circular panel on the top of the cube, which rose up and revealed what looked like eyes. The entire underside of the cube glowed a light green .

It only took Sora and Shadow a minute to arrive at the top of one of the smaller mountains, and they observed what was happening below. The shadow Heartless seemed to simply loiter in the vicinity of the tornado, while the robots, hovering above the ground, started drilling into the ground as soon as they landed with drills that protruded from where their hands should be. A voice boomed from the sky, "There's a Chaos Emerald in this area. I command you all to find it!"

Sora whispered to Shadow, "Eggman's ship must be above the clouds. How can we get there?"

The gears churned in Shadow's mind while he formulated a plan. He summoned his Keyblade and held it up, motioning for Sora to do the same. He nodded and did so, and Shadow aimed his Keyblade out to the clearing. "Chaos Spear!" He quietly exclaimed, and he fired hundreds of energy spears out of his Keyblade. They curved downward and stabbed through the shadows. Sora smiled and did the same with his Wisdom shots. The duo blasted away the heartless and the robots from their distance, until the "rain" subsided.

"Well, this is a surprise. Sora _and_ Shadow? What an unlikely pair!" Eggman's voice erupted from the sky once again. "Well this is good. Three Chaos Emeralds all in one place! I must thank you for destroying my drill-bots. Now I have an excuse to use my new drill-bot Heartless!

"Wait," Sora called out, "You've made your own heartless?"

"He has. Riku and I had to fight it."

"That Artificial Chaos Heartless was just an experiment. This is the real deal!" At that, the black tornado doubled in size, and suddenly there was a loud boom. The tornado faded away to reveal, once again, the Egg Dragoon, with new wings, extra parts, and a black and red paint job. Surrounding it were two dozen robots that looked much like the earlier ones, excluding the addition of the black and red heartless emblem on their fronts.

Shadow aimed his Keyblade at the crowd again, and fired numerous Chaos Spears again. The Dragoon raised its much larger gold wings and shielded itself from the blasts. The light spears simply shattered on impact with the wings, without making the slightest scratch. The Drill-bot heartless easily swerved away with incredible speed. By the end of the Chaos Spear assault, it was as if nothing ever happened. Shadow gritted his teeth and grunted.

Eggman's booming laughter came from the sky, "It won't be as easy as it was last time to take down these guys! You still have thirty minutes to give up your Chaos Emeralds, so in the meantime, please entertain yourselves with my robots. I know I will be. Now, I believe it is time to receive those Chaos Emeralds, by force or otherwise!"

The Drill-bot Heartless started speeding towards Sora and Shadow, with their drills spinning. Some immediately dug underground, some kept going, while a few others stopped moving and fired their drills like missiles. Sora and Shadow waited for the drills to come closer, and when they were the right distance, the two cut them in half with only a few slashes. The shooting Drill-bots quickly reloaded and fired again. Sora reactivated the magic in his feet and skated away from the missiles, when the Drill-bots that remained on the ground were finally upon them.

There were six Drill-bots on top of the mountain, and one of them propelled itself into the air and attempted to cross drill into Sora. He held his Keyblade up and, at the last second, spun to the side and sliced off the drills of the robot. Sora glanced sideways and noticed Shadow had done the same thing to another one. Sora looked back to see the de-drilled robot rapidly spinning, flailing its metal tube arms right into Sora's side. The blow forced him to skate sideways a little bit, but he quickly recovered and rose his Keyblade.

Another Drill-bot Heartless decided to join the fray by jumping over the dismembered one and attempting to drill into Sora like the previous one had done. He employed the same strategy as before, but the robot used it's speed to cross its drills and defend itself. Sora pushed down on the robot while it pushed up. Just when Sora felt like he was going to win this power struggle, he felt a sharp pain in his back, and he fell to the ground and saw the first Drill-bot slowing down its spin. A third Drill-bot arrived at Sora's right, and the three robotic Heartless approached Sora from opposite directions.

He stood up and pointed his Keyblade in the air, "Defense!" he yelled. His shielding dome appeared once more, and the three robots started slamming their arms into it. Knowing fully well that the shield wouldn't hold them forever, Sora quickly thought of a new plan. Cracks rose on the shield where the Drill-bot Heartless had been attacking, and the two with drills started drilling through the cracks. The drill-less Heartless jumped incredibly high in the air, and slammed down on the shield, shattering it to bits. When it landed, the three sped to Sora, once again from their different directions.

Light erupted from Sora's hand, and it zoomed down his Keyblade to the head. Sora held it in the air, and waited for the robot trio to get as close as possible. He thrust his Keyblade down and shouted, "Explosion!" The light at the end split into three large balls of energy, the size of the robots. The energy orbs spun around Sora once, destroying the Drill-bot heartless where they stood. When the rubble cleared three pink hearts rose a few feet in the air and faded away.

Sora looked around and saw that Shadow was already fighting the four missile Drill-bots, and was about to join in when an ominous voice came from behind him. "You've done much better than I expected, Sora. How about we make a little deal regarding that Chaos Emerald of yours."

* * *

When the six Drill-bots on the mountaintop had arrived, Shadow knew he had to deal with them quickly else the missiles would surely do them in. The first Drill-bot to come at him tried drilling straight at him. He quickly sidestepped and slashed vertically, through the arms of the robot. He then spun at a high speed and sliced diagonally through what was left of the cube. A heart squeezed through the gash in the robot and dissolved in the air. He quickly turned his attention to the next one coming at him. It jumped several yards in the air and quickly came down with one drill. Shadow warped away at the last second, right above the second Heartless, and stabbed through its head. He didn't watch the heart release itself.

The third Drill-bot used its high speed to start circling Shadow. He once again used Chaos control to warp into the air and aimed his Keyblade at the area of the circle. "Chaos Spear," he shouted, and fired his Chaos bullets into the circle. To his surprise, the translucent gray circle remained and he landed in the center of the circle. Out of nowhere, the robot jumped to Shadow from behind and slammed into his back. Before he hit the ground, however, Shadow stabbed his Keyblade into the ground and pole vaulted back to his feet. He then realized he would have to use his speed to match the robot's.

When the robot started circling again, Shadow ran in a small circle to pick up speed, and then skated and circled alongside the robot. The two started skating/hovering straight and the robot stabbed at Shadow with both drills. Shadow parried them away. He sped up to get ahead of the robot, suddenly stopped, and swung his Keyblade at the Heartless like a baseball bat. The impact crumbled the Drill-bot, and the freed heart actually traveled in the direction the robot would have before fading into nothing.

Shadow then sped to the missile robots, who seemed to be out of ammo and were turning back to the Egg Dragoon, and started slashing at them. Without their drills and caught by surprise, the first two of four were easily taken down. The other two then ferociously attacked Shadow from his front at the same time. He blocked the intense blows, and tried countering, but they were deflected by the metal tubes. He realized this couldn't go on forever, so he used Chaos Control, but just as he was about to warp, his Keyblade transformed back into a dull Chaos Emerald.

Utilizing quick thinking, he sped to the other side of the robots, and punched the first one he came to right through the back. It short circuited and exploded, but no heart came out. The second one came at him again, but Shadow used the same technique, and soon after the last Drill-bot was a steaming heap of metal. He looked up at the Dragoon, knowing how his Keyblade transformed but wondering why it hadn't happened earlier, and why the giant robot was simply standing around. He looked at Sora and realized why. He immediately ran to him and the other person joining him.

* * *

Sora had turned around when the voice spoke, to see very a fat man dressed in a red coat and black leather pants. There were obnoxiously large yellow buttons on the coat, and he had a giant, fuzzy brown mustache. He was sitting in the chair of what looked like the the bottom half of an egg, that was black on the bottom and gray on the side. "By the looks of it," Sora started, "I would guess you're Eggman."

"Doctor Robotnik, if you will," Eggman said, "So as I said, I want that Chaos Emerald!"

"Free Kairi and I'll think about it!" Sora shouted and gripped his Keyblade tighter.

"Give me the Emerald and I might give you the girl," He smoothly responded. He had an evil smile on his face. He pushed a button on his control panel, and suddenly all the Chaos power Sora had in him faded away. His Wisdom form dissipated, and the Chaos Emerald rematerialized in his hand. Eggman leaned forward and held out his arm. "It's the best chance you'll have at getting her back, so I suggest you do it, boy."

Sora thought about it for a second, and heard crumbling metal as Shadow destroyed the last of the Drill-bots. "Fine," he muttered and slowly raised the Yellow Chaos Emerald toward Eggman's hand.

"Sora! Stop! It's just a trick!" Shadow yelled from his right, but it was too late. Eggman snatched the Emerald from Sora's hand, and started laughing.

"You got your Emerald, Eggman! Now free Kairi like you said you would!" Sora shouted, but the doctor continued laughing.

"You fool! I didn't say I would, I said I _might_ free her. And I've decided I won't! Now I have this glorious Chaos Emerald to add to my collection! I just need three more to complete my Egg Dragoon!" He said this while driving his floating egg to the torso of the Dragon. He inserted Sora's Chaos Emerald into a hole next to the green, purple, and white Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald in the center of the circle.

With added power, the Dragoon stood a little straighter, and stomped its legs. "You see," Eggman began, "With the upgrades I added to the Dragoon, it needed more power than what was available. So I knew I needed one more Chaos Emerald to get all of its functions to work at once, and thanks to your foolishness, Sora, my robot now has full capabilities. However, it is nowhere near full power. We just need those last-." Eggman was cut off by the sound of shifting earth below them.

Suddenly, a Drill-bot Heartless plowed through the dirt and rocks with one drill, the other pointed downward. Its bottom panel glowed bright green as the robotic Heartless flew up to Eggman's vehicle. "Well, what a coincidence, I was just talking about you! Hand me the Emerald, my new friend." Eggman held out his hand in a polite gesture, just to tease Sora and Shadow, and the robot held out the arm that didn't have a drill. For a second nothing happened except for the sound of whirring in the Heartless, and then the light blue Chaos Emerald appeared and fell out of the tube.

Eggman cackled again and flew down to the next open space on the Egg Dragoon's chest and placed the Emerald inside. The five Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald glowed bright for half a second, and then returned to normal. Shadow glared at Eggman and clutched his still dull Chaos Emerald. Eggman looked at the lackluster red rock in Shadow's hand before speaking, "Don't worry, Shadow. I have a special surprise for you and Sonic to get those Emeralds from you two."

"Yeah?" Shadow sarcastically responded, "Like what?"

"Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, would it?" His floating egg started rising, "If you'll excuse me, now, I have an invasion to plan in twenty minutes. Come, my magnificent Egg Dragoon!" Eggman drove his Egg Transport up into the black clouds, and the Dragoon pushed his wings down with force, generating lift and slowly rising into the air.

Sora clenched his fists as tight as he could and watched in anger as the dragon ascended into the air and began to plow through the clouds. His breathing grew heavy while his mind became clouded with anger, hatred, resentment, and pain.

Shadow took a few steps back, slightly confused, and stared as Sora's Keyblade disappeared from his hand. When the light from the shimmering weapon faded away, his hands started turning black. Gradual darkness flowed from his hands and slowly climbed up his arms. The same happened from his feet until what seemed like a cloud of pure darkness had completely engulfed him.

When the black smoke began to fade away, Shadow could see a pitch black figure hunched over inside the cloud. "Sora?" he hesitantly asked, keeping one fist clenched and the other holding the still shine-less Chaos Emerald. The black creature turned it's head and revealed large, glowing yellow eyes. Shadow's own eyes widened when the darkness subsided and he got a full look at what became of Sora.

Everything on him was black; from his skin to his shoes and his clothes to his hair; they were all as black as night. His aqua blue eyes had changed to glowing yellow orbs, and his brown hair became black, knotted and wild. His nose and mouth seemed to have disappeared. The darkness still flowed from his hands and feet, and what looked like claws had formed on them both. His posture changed from upright to hunched over, like the Shadow Heartless, and he had his arms all the way down so they were also touching the ground. Sora, if the creature could still be called so, cocked his head sideways at Shadow and simply stared. If it hadn't been created from pure anger, rage, and hate, it would have looked somewhat innocent.

"Sora? Are you there at all?" Shadow asked again, hoping for a response. It cocked its head the other way. Shadow blinked and the creature was gone. He quickly looked around and saw nothing, but when he straightened his head forward, Sora's Anti-Form was inches away from him. He picked Shadow up by the neck, did the fastest spin Shadow had ever seen and experienced, and within milliseconds he was face down on the ground.

Shadow pushed himself back to his feet and coughed out dirt. He turned around and saw Anti-Sora somewhat galloping down the mountain to the clearing that the Egg Dragoon had just left. "Could he really have turned into a heartless?" Shadow uttered to himself and watched while the creature stopped moving and looked into the air. Sora let out a scream that sounded more like a demonic roar, and the dark clouds above seemed to condense even tighter.

It started raining darkness again, but these dark "raindrops" were even bigger than before. The dark pools that formed when the globs hit the ground gave rise to what at first looked like Shadow Heartless. However, when they rose even higher from the darkness, Shadow could see the difference. They were as black as Sora had become, but were more stretched out than the Shadow Heartless. Their torsos were broader, with longer arms and legs than their smaller counterparts. The claws on their hands had become knife-like, and the antennae on their heads had grown tenfold and zigzagged backwards and down almost to the ground.

The Neoshadow Heartless increased in number as Shadow stood at the peak of the mound, watching down. He knew he couldn't do anything until he got his Chaos Emerald back to power, which meant he needed patience. Anti-Sora didn't let him have that, because he used his impossible speed to appear right in front of Shadow again, grab his arm and spin laterally. After the fourth spin Sora released and shot Shadow into the heard of new Heartless below. For the second time in minutes, he was face first in dirt.

When Shadow had picked himself up again, he was surrounded by Neoshadows. He glanced up and saw Sora standing where they both stood only a second ago. The Heartless directly in front of him jumped with a speed much greater than the original purebloods, and Shadow just barely dodged the attack sideways. He saw several others jump into the ground, creating a dark puddle that appeared to move on its own. Two more Neoshadows lunged at him while the puddles approached. Shadow jumped over the two Heartless, and landed right in the middle of a dark ring.

The submerged Neoshadows darted from the pools of darkness at the same time, and in the process created powerful shock waves that collided with Shadow from every direction. The force of the impact shot Shadow upward, where Anti-Sora had conveniently jumped and slashed him back into the ground with his dark claws. Another Neoshadow sped under him and kicked him into the air, back towards Sora, before he could land. The dark creature clutched Shadow's arms, and somehow propelled itself down at an intense speed.

Before the two smacked into the ground, Sora shifted his weight, placed his feet on Shadow's torso, and kicked himself off, boosting Shadow's impact with the ground. Sora did a back flip in the air and landed amidst the Neoshadows, who seemed to do nothing against him. The heartless jumped at Shadow again, but they seemed to come at every possible direction. Just as they were about to strike him all at once, Shadow felt a warmth in his hand. Without moving he called out, "Chaos Control!"

The Neoshadows landed on the ground and simply stood, waiting for their next potential target. Shadow watched from the top of the mountain as Anti-Sora and the Heartless looked around for their disappeared foe. He leaned on his knees and coughed blood. "Sora..." He said to himself, "Did you really turn into a heartless?" Shadow tried figuring out possible alternatives to what happened to Sora. _He has different forms_, He thought, _Could this be one of them?_ _Why doesn't he recognize me?_

Shadow transformed his Chaos Emerald into his Keyblade and looked down at it. He then looked up to see more Neoshadows falling from the pitch black clouds. "There's only one thing I can do. Sora, Heartless of not, I'm going to have to stop you somehow!" He used Chaos Control to teleport into his rematch.

* * *

_A/N: I hope you liked Part 1. The second part is coming soon! Don't worry, it'll be sooner than it took for this chapter to come up! Don't forget to review! It's the only way I'll know what you think of it all! _


	8. Forming Fights: Part 2

_A/N[UPDATED]: I told you I only split the chapter into two. That's why this came so fast! So here's the conclusion to Chapter 7, and one step closer to my favorite part of this entire Fanfiction. As if I'll tell you... yet _=]._ Copyrights: Kingdom Hearts- Square Enix, Sonic the Hedgehog- Sega, Disney- Disney. Horray for suspicion of Copyright infringement! I'll accept reviews of both criticism and praise, so don't be shy. Enjoy!_

Chapter 8

Forming Fight(s): Part 2

Shadow appeared inches behind Anti-Sora and slashed at him with the blade end of his Keyblade. It seemed to fade away, leaving Shadow to finish his slice into nothing. Sora's Anti-Form reappeared behind Shadow and clawed him in the back. The attack launched Shadow several feet, and he skated backwards to keep his eyes on Sora.

A Neoshadow jumped at him from his right. Shadow raised his Keyblade with force and cut the Neoshadow in half. "Finally," Shadow muttered while keeping aware of his surroundings, "Leverage." He raced into a pack of Neoshadows and slashed wildly, slicing through two at a time. One seemed to hover as it darted to him, but Shadow jumped even higher than the Heartless, spun and decapitated it. Upon landing he looked up and realized that the Neoshadows had been falling from the sky much faster than he could destroy them.

Shadow started skating, increasing his speed while holding out his Keyblade to destroy any Heartless that happened to be in his way. He zoomed to the outside of the mass of Neoshadows and ran in a giant circle around them. _Sora has to be in there somewhere, I just need to get him alone, _Shadow thought to himself, while still increasing his speed. When he was going faster than he needed to he tightened his circle, herding the black creatures closer and closer together.

Shadow threw his Keyblade a foot in the air, let it spin halfway around, and caught it so he was holding the Keyblade backwards at the hilt. He continued squeezing the Heartless closer, and started absorbing as much energy as he could from the Chaos Keyblade. "Chaos Control!" He yelled, and warped fifty feet above the center of the herd. He whipped his Keyblade straight down, and the blade stabbed the ground. The impact, as well as the released energy Shadow was absorbing, made a small explosion that dissolved the Heartless in the immediate area. Shadow free-fell and landed next to his Keyblade with all of the Chaos Energy surging through his body. He crossed his arms, and his whole body glowed red. "Chaos," he said and increased the tension in his entire body. Shadow threw his arms out with as much power as he could muster, "Blast!"

His seemed to explode with red Chaos Energy. The explosion expanded much faster than the Neoshadows could get out of the way, and within seconds they were all gone. When the blast cleared, Shadow lowered his arms and pulled his Keyblade out of the ground. He looked up and saw more black rain falling. "I need to end this, now!" Shadow said to himself. He checked his immediate area, but Sora was nowhere to be seen. The first of the new Heartless landed on the ground, but before it could even start an attack, Shadow skated and cut through it. In the fading darkness of what used to be a Neoshadow, Shadow saw Anti-Sora looming on the mountaintop, again.

While avoiding falling Heartless, Shadow sped up the side of the mountain until he reached the top to find his opponent waiting for him. They stood for a second, and Shadow gripped his Keyblade tighter, and then they charged at each other at the same time. Anti-Sora made the first blow, having dodged Shadow's stab and hammered down his claws on Shadow's back. Shadow pushed off the ground and jumped backwards before Sora could execute another attack.

Shadow ran over to Sora and tried vertically slashing at him. Anti-Sora eerily moved out of the way, and clawed forward. Shadow teleported behind Sora to dodge. He clubbed Sora's Anti-form as hard as he could, and it actually worked that time. Sora was launched forward and landed on his "face." Shadow walked over to the grounded Half-Heartless, and raised his Keyblade. He was about to strike when a Neoshadow tackled him from behind.

On the ground, Shadow sliced the Neoshadow in half and looked sideways. Somehow there were more Heartless climbing the mountain than he expected by that time. He weakly got up, having lost most of his available energy within the past ten minutes, and saw Anti-Sora jump at him at a high speed. Instinctively, Shadow raised his Keyblade in defense. What he didn't expect was how well it worked.

When Shadow realized what had happened, he stood in awe for a second. When he had raised his Keyblade, it actually impaled Anti-Sora where his heart should be. The creature stood frozen with the Keyblade in his chest. A bright light emitted from Sora, and Shadow's Keyblade started falling into him. Shadow tried pulling it back out as hard as he could, but to no avail. In the end, he was forced to let go for the possibility that he might have fallen into the expanding light as well.

Shadow jumped back a few feet and watched as the dark creature became engulfed in light. The glowing mass rose several feet and seemed to solidify into a glass-like sphere that looked like Sora's defense spell. Shadow would have watched the show forever if another Neoshadow hadn't tackled him from behind again. The impact with the Heartless was even harder than last time. Either that, or Shadow was already fatigued so it seemed to pack more of a punch.

Shadow weakly stood up and saw, despite his blurring vision, the Heartless dashing at him again. Moments before another hit, Shadow ducked down and dodged it by inches. He watched the Neoshadow fall down the mountain, and turned back to see another one a foot away and approaching fast. He dropped to the ground and kicked it away. Before Shadow could get up, however, two more crawled beside him and stared with their glowing bug-yellow eyes.

Before they could attack, a Keyblade sliced through the one to his right. Shadow then saw his red Keyblade fly through mid-air and stab through the other, landing in the ground like it had done earlier when he threw it. There was a hand extended to him, and Shadow took it and used the hand to stand up. He looked up and saw Sora, human again, with red clothes that seemed to emit red sparks. His short sleeved hooded jacket was red, and his undershirt black. His pants had changed to black, with red sections that seemed to cover the black ones like armor. There was a dagger-like symbol that ran along the front of the pant legs. His sneakers had even changed colors to red and black with the exclusion of white soles.

"Another form?" Shadow panted, having run out of strength.

"Yeah," Sora smiled, "This is my Valor Form. I have no magic but I can use two Keyblades with much more power than I had otherwise."

"I see," Shadow said, "What just happened?"

Sora was about to answer when a heartless jumped at him. Smiling, Sora sliced away at the Neoshadow without any effort at all. "Rest up," Sora instructed Shadow, "I'll handle the Heartless." He stepped around Shadow, picked up the red Chaos Keyblade, and ran at the nearest heartless.

He X slashed the first one he came to and it dissolved into the air. Two more jumped at him from the front. He used the Keyblade in his right hand to slash diagonally downward through one, while he used his left Keyblade to slice the other one in half horizontally. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a Neoshadow jump high into the air to him. Sora turned and crossed his two Keyblades and blocked the Heartless's attack. He spun the two swords so their blades were facing out, and cut the Heartless into four dark clouds.

Sora looked around while slicing down Neoshadows into the abyss of darkness. "Great, it's Hollow Bastion all over again!" He exclaimed to himself, laughing. Several of the Heartless jumped into the ground like they had done for Shadow and the dark puddles lurched in Sora's direction. "Ha!" Sora shouted at their attack, "As if you're getting me with that one!"

Before the Heartless released their energy as they did with Shadow, Sora jumped with a back flip. The Neoshadows ended up sending shock waves onto each other, destroying them. Sora jumped much higher than usual, and before he finished his flip he threw both Keyblades to the ground. They spiraled through two Heartless per weapon and impaled the ground. Sora landed between the two Keyblades and pulled them out simultaneously, vertically slicing through two more Heartless.

Five Neoshadows darted at Sora from all directions, but Sora spun, holding his Keyblades out, and dissolved them all. He then ran forward while wielding his dual weapons forward in a  
V shape, and stopped inside a new crowd. He randomly sliced at every heartless near him, and the method actually worked. However, after a few minutes of this repetition, Sora began to feel his exhaustion rising.

"I can't take them all," Sora said to himself, while switching from offense to defense in his mode of attack. Instead of directly slashing the Heartless, he waited for them to attack him, and used a simple block-and-counter technique. Almost by request, Sora heard a loud roaring behind him. He turned around to see what was going on and divided three heartless with one strike at the same time.

A white jet plane with four wings that formed an X that surrounded a large engine in the back of the plane flew overhead. Astounded, Sora lowered his Keyblades, which wasn't much of a good idea because the moment he did, two more Neoshadows jumped at him. Before he could respond, a blue flash blurred his vision, and then the airborne Heartless were gone.

Sora looked down to find Sonic the Hedgehog looking at him and smirking. "Did somebody call for reinforcements?" He pointed his thumb at the large jet that was spiraling so it flew upside down. The cockpit seemed to slice itself in two and open outward. Sora could make out Tails flying the plane, and he saw two others fall down from the plane into the Heartless field below.

"Riku and the King?" Sora smiled as he asked Sonic.

He nodded and motioned his head towards where the two landed. He then sped into that direction wile horizontally slashing madly to take down whatever Heartless was in front of him. Sora nodded and advanced his way on the same bearing. He spiraled the Chaos Keyblade in his left hand and placed it on his shoulder. He held his normal Keyblade underneath his left arm and ran quicker than he normally would, dodging Heartless on the way.

A Neoshadow jumped at him from the front, so Sora lashed his right hand Keyblade out and cut it in half. He then placed the weapon back where it was and continued running. After a minute of running and slashing, Sora arrived at a clearing, where he found Riku, Mickey, and Sonic standing in a triangle, holding their Keyblades out.

Instead of jumping in the middle alongside them, Sora turned and faced the Heartless horde and waited for an attack. Riku's voice came from his left, "You couldn't resist, could you?"

"I had to," Sora calmly said while halving a Heartless that had charged at him. Riku nodded and blasted three heartless away with his Dark Aura. "We'll talk later. Let's finish these Heartless first!" He held both of his Keyblades at his sides to prepare for whatever would come at him next. Riku noticed Shadow's usual Keyblade in Sora's left hand.

"Where's Shadow?" Riku's question sounded almost like a demand.

"He's at the top of that hill," Sora motioned to the mound he had left Shadow to rest, "He got beat up pretty bad." Sora paused, "I did it..."

Riku glanced at him weirdly, but quickly focused his attention back to the common enemy. "Since when did the Neoshadows start showing up?"

"Me again," Sora half smiled and ran forward. He vertically slashed upwards through two at the same time, and then while his Keyblades were up, he brought them down diagonally to destroy two more. Riku ran up beside Sora and sliced at one. He let one hand let go of his Keyblade, held it out and rapidly fired more Dark Aura shots.

"There's too many, Sora!" Riku shouted while looking around at the impossible amount of Heartless surrounding them. Sora looked back at Mickey and Sonic, who were still back to back and fending off Neoshadows left and right. Riku continued while defending himself, "We need to get out of here, before Eggman's attack begins!" Sora thought quickly, and, without talking, immediately sprinted to the mountain he had started from. Riku tried to follow, but Sora was running too fast.

* * *

Shadow had a lucky break after Sora ran off. The Neoshadows followed him down the mountain, which left Shadow alone to catch his breath. After he could breathe fully again, he tried getting up, but after two steps he fell. He got up on his hands and knees and coughed. Shadow slowly placed one foot under himself, and then added the other foot. Cautiously, he stood up and stayed in place.

He watched Sora fend off the Heartless that had given him so much trouble until he heard what sounded like a train coming from behind him. It seemed so small, but within ten seconds Tails' plane was flying in. It turned upside down and dropped Riku and the King. It then flew a small distance away and landed. He watched the four fight and talk simultaneously, and soon after he saw Sora running to him.

"There's too many for us to take on," Sora panted when he was within speaking distance from Shadow. Sora closed his eyes and relaxed. The Keyblade in his left hand faded away and transformed into a Chaos Emerald again. He looked down at his finally normal clothes and tossed the Chaos Emerald at Shadow.

"We're running away?" Shadow sounded disappointed, despite his injuries.

Sora nodded, held out his Keyblade and once again healed Shadow. He took a deep breath, looked at Sora and then at the the trio still fighting Heartless. He then squeezed the Chaos Emerald, grabbed Sora's arm and warped the two away.

The scenery changed from a black sea of Heartless to a series of mountains a few hundred feet away. Sora turned around and saw the white plane that had flown over him several minutes ago. "What about the others?" he immediately questioned, but when he looked down Shadow was gone. Sora sighed and walked to the cockpit of the plane.

Tails was inside the plane underneath the control panel, obviously messing with wires. Sora knocked on the glass. Tails looked up and, when realizing who it was, pushed a button to open the cockpit. "Hey, Sora. Give me a second to finish my tweaking. Boy, did we figure out something huge on the way here!"

Sora raised an eyebrow and was about to ask, but an odd sensation swept over him. There was a buzz-like sound to his left, and when he looked he saw a red flash. When it faded, Shadow was standing in the middle of Riku, Mickey and Sonic, all on the ground with their Keyblades in their hands.

"Tough fight?" Sora smartly asked.

"You have no idea," Riku responded while standing up. "We don't have much time until Eggman's attack-"

"We have eight minutes!" Tails interrupted from the plane.

"Right, so let's hope those heartless," He pointed his thumb back to the mountains, "don't follow us." Everyone nodded. It seemed everyone had something to say, but not enough time or energy to ask. Shadow looked at Sora and started.

"Where did the Heartless come from?"

Sora looked at the ground, "I got mad. When Eggman tricked me I felt like I hated him."

Stepping forward, Riku questioned, "Did you transform?"

Sora nodded, and Sonic inquired to Riku, "What does that mean?"

"Sora turned into a Heartless once. It took the light from Kairi's heart to bring him back."

Sonic looked at Sora with a stunned look, and Sora took over the explanation, "The only problem is that the darkness that I became when I was a heartless still sits in my heart. When I got mad, the darkness took over."

"So," Shadow cut in, thinking about everything that happened, "When I stabbed you with the Keyblade, the light from the Chaos Emerald brought you back?"

"It looks like it."

Tails jumped down from the cockpit, finally, and jumped into the conversation, "You still haven't answered the question. Were they from Eggman?"

"No," Shadow answered, "They came when Sora changed."

"How?" Tails asked, genuinely intrigued by every concept that had been brought up on this adventure.

King Mickey answered, "Heartless obey to the most powerful, dark willed being. When he transformed, Sora became that being." Tails had his hand on his chin and nodded. He then looked at his watch. When he saw the time he jumped.

"Guys! We have five minutes until the attack! What are we going to do?"

"I say we stop him by force!" Sonic exclaimed.

Sora almost shouted, "Finally, somebody agrees with me!"

Riku looked Sonic in the eyes, "You mean raid the Egg Carrier?"

"You got it!" Sonic smirked, winked and gave a thumbs up.

"We're out of time, it's the last thing we can do before the invasion. Maybe we can distract him," Sora looked anxious while talking, and Riku saw his true intentions.

"Fine," Shadow gave in, "We'll go after the doctor on his ship. Tails, fly back to the warehouse and pick up Knuckles and Rouge. The Sonic, Riku, Sora, Mickey and I will go to the Egg Carrier now. Meet us there." Tails gave a small nod, jumped in the air and spun his two tails around. They spun so rapidly that they propelled him into the air, and he flew forward above the cockpit. He stopped spinning his tails and landed inside.

Even after Tails' plane had left, the three Keyblade wielders stared in awe at what Tails had just done. Shadow snapped the three out of their stunned silence. "Let's go!" He shouted and held his hand forward. King Mickey put his hand on top and made eye contact with Shadow. Riku joined in, then Sora. Sonic placed his hand on top and looked at Shadow, who used Chaos Control to teleport the five to the belly of the beast.


	9. The Raid

_A/N[UPDATED]: GUESS WHO'S BACK! Sorry to keep you waiting for almost a year, It was a combination of severe writer's block and just a lot of stuff to do. I hope to finish this by the end of the year so please review and keep me motivated to keep this goal! I may or may not make a series, It's up to you! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this long awaited chapter, and be sure to let me know how i'm doing. You all know what really belongs to what, and if not... well Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix, Disney Characters belong to Disney, and Sonic Characters belong to Sega. I'm really tired of mentioning copyrights... Shouldn't it be assumed that most of us don't make our own characters? _

**Chapter 9: The Raid**

Sora, Riku, Sonic, Shadow and King Mickey appeared on a glassy green surface on Eggman's battleship. The group of five looked down to see rotating gears and machines beneath their feet. "Wow," Sonic muttered while looking up and around, "He really didn't change this much."

Mickey cocked his head, confused, "You've been here before?"

Sonic chuckled, "Yeah, in one of our earlier adventures, Eggman used this same ship, but it was red instead of black."

"I guess he likes the design," Riku commented, and moved forward to a small bridge attached to the green platform. Before stepping forward he turned back to the other four, "Okay, we're here now, so what's our- Sora! Get back here!"

Sora had started running across a different path parallel to the first one. " No! I'm going to find Kairi!"

"Wait!" Riku almost ran after him, but Mickey stopped him.

"Let him go. Sooner or later we'll need to find her anyway."

"Besides," Shadow continued, "there's still four of us."

Riku paused to think, then nodded as he watched Sora run across the main deck of the Carrier. "Okay. Then what's our plan?"

"We need to find the doctor and the other Chaos Emeralds," Shadow began, looking out to the massive ship, "and then we'll destroy this place once and for all."

"Uh-huh," Riku was skeptical on the last part, "and how do we do that?"

Sonic spoke up, "Easy. We keep hitting stuff until something blows up!"

The four looked at each other and realized that it was the best plan they had, before running in the direction of the bridge of the ship.

* * *

Sora couldn't afford waiting any longer. He had wasted the entire adventure waiting, so this was his chance to end the suspense. He ran across the deck of the ship until the other four seemed like dots in the distance. Sora stopped running, only because he had to. He had come to a gray wall with no means of going around.

"Well," Sora sighed, "That was pointless." He was about to turn around to tell the others of his lack of success when he noticed something on the ground. Centered in front of the gray wall was a yellow and black striped circle. There was a straight line that ran across the stripes, indicating that the circle opened up. "Maybe not," Sora corrected himself.

He summoned his Keyblade and tapped on the circle. Nothing. He stepped around it and tapped again. Still Nothing. Sora smiled, "This should be fun." He aimed his Keyblade at the circle and held it with two hands. "Freeze!" He called out, and a blue beam shot from the tip of his blade. The metal panel froze wherever the beam touched, and Sora kept this up until the entire circle was frozen.

Lowering his weapon, Sora looked down at the chilled metal. He raised his Keyblade above his head, and brought it down hard on the chunk of ice. It didn't shatter the first time, it simply made a large crack. Sora repeated his strike, successfully the second time, and the icy metal shattered and fell inward.

Sora looked down the hole he had just made and saw what looked like a giant lobby. But there was only one way to know for sure. The hole was a little wider than Sora was tall, so he sat with his legs hanging over the edge. Keeping his arms above the opening, Sora slid down, spun around and caught himself before falling. He then placed the protruding blade of his Keyblade over the edge and slowly lowered himself about two feet lower than he was. "Here goes nothing," Sora muttered, and finally pulled his Keyblade back, falling down.

Sora stared at the floor that was approaching quickly. He pointed his Keyblade down and at the last second shouted, "Aero!" A gust of wind flowed from his blade and pushed underneath Sora. It didn't break the fall, but the wind cushioned it enough so Sora could easily roll out.

When he stood up he saw a tremendous transport station. There were glowing railings that seemed to carry wired monorails, numerous Egg Transports that lined each long wall of the rectangular room. At one end of the room was a stairwell and a ramp that led to a yellow and brown striped hovering transport that looked like Eggman's without a seat. The other end had three metal doors lined up in a semi-circle.

Sora walked to the three doors and stared at them. Trying to figure out which door to choose, he called out, "Kairi!"

After a few seconds he heard a faint shout from the door on the right, "Sora!"

Sora heard this and broke into a dead sprint towards that door. In his haste he didn't notice a rotating platform in the middle of the half-circle. When he stepped on it he fell off balance and accidentally spun into the door on the left. The door opened automatically and closed behind him.

Regaining his balance, Sora stood straight and looked at the room he had stumbled into. There was a large, blue circular platform with machines and computers surrounding it. In the middle of the platform was a single Drill-bot, non-heartless. Suddenly, there was a bright, yellow flash that lasted several seconds. When it faded, the Drill-bot was still there, but it had a heartless emblem on the front. The new heartless hovered off the platform and into a group of about fifty Drill-bot Heartless. Sora looked back to the platform in time to watch another robot get zapped into a heartless.

Wide-eyed, Sora slowly backed away, attempting not to be noticed by the dormant horde of heartless. Refusing the keep his eyes off them, he blindly stepped backwards, hoping to reach the door. He reached his hand back and felt the metal door behind him. Once he touched it, the door whirred open and the light from the station flooded in. The immobile heartless all activated in response to the sudden light, and glowed their eyes on Sora in the doorway. Realizing what was about to happen, Sora turned and bolted out the door, across the half circle, and into the opposite door.

When the automatic door closed behind him, Sora exhaled deeply and placed his hands on his knees. He took a moment to breathe and hope the heartless wouldn't be swarming outside the door when he finally left. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down, but a voice to his right interrupted the silence.

"It took you long enough to come find me," said a girl's voice that made Sora happy and anxious at the same time. He beamed up at the girl, who standing inside a jail cell, one hand holding one of the bars, the other at her side. Her innocent smile only brightened her perfect face, and Sora almost forgot that the world was still in danger.

"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed as he ran to her cell. "Are you okay? Did Eggman hurt you? What happened? Tell me everything!"

Kairi chuckled and smiled, "Slow down Sora! I'm fine, and I'm not hurt. You worry too much about me."

Sora paused, knowing she was right. "Okay, so how did you end up here?"

Kairi looked at the ceiling and thought hard. "Well, there was that weird explosion back home, and the next thing I knew, I was laying on a beach in front of this huge building." She held out her arms to demonstrate the enormity of the building.

"What happened next?"

The answer didn't come from Kairi, but from the cell next to hers, "I found her!"

Sora looked to the left and saw what looked like a purple-pink hedgehog. Then again, Sora only knew two hedgehogs and this one looked nothing like them. Her spines didn't go back like Sonic and Shadow, but down, a lot like Kairi's hair. She had a red dress on that was white at the hem, with similarly patterned boots. She wore white gloves with large gold bracelets, and she had a red headband just beyond her ears.

She held out her hand between the bars of her jail cell, "I'm Amy Rose, I'm pleased to meet ya! You must be Sora. Kairi's told me _so_ much about you!"

Sora shook her hand, confused, and looked back and forth between the two girls. "Um, okay." He couldn't think of anything else to say

"Anyway, after I found your little girlfriend, I took her back to my place in Station Square and cleaned her up. Then, we left to look for you two while I looked for my darling Sonic!"

Neither Sora nor Kairi wanted to interrupt Amy during the "girlfriend" comment, but then Sora spoke up. "You know Sonic?"

"Of course! He's my boyfriend!" She said matter-of-factly. "Wait... How do _you_ know Sonic?"

"I met him when I landed on this planet. I wonder why he never mentioned you." Sora trailed off.

"WHAT?" Amy screamed at the top of her lungs, "NEVER MENTIONED ME! HOW COULD HE!"

Sora backed away to Kairi's cell while Amy literally turned red from anger. He quietly spoke out of the side of his mouth to Kairi, "So what happened next?" He didn't take his eyes off Amy, in case she somehow exploded.

Whispering, Kairi responded, "We split up in the middle of some forest, and then this ship showed up. Someone spoke to me through it, saying that he would use me to get to you, and then this blue light came from it. The next thing I knew, I was here."

Sora nodded while watching Amy rant and pace inside her cell. "What about her?"

Kairi paused, "I don't know."

Suddenly, Amy changed from red to pink and leaned forward in her cell again, "When I realized Eggman took Kairi, I tried to find him. It took me a day, but somehow I got captured by a robot and brought here... again." She sounded depressed when she said her last sentence. It didn't last and she soon sounded cheery again, "But now that you're here you can let us go! Is Sonic here too?"

An officially freaked out Sora nodded, and then asked, "How do I open the cell?"

Amy giggled like a teenage schoolgirl, and then pointed at a giant button that was yellow and black striped and red on the top. "Push it down and the cell door will open. Let go and it closes again. It's that simple. Now let me out so I can get to Sonic!"

Sora walked over to the nearest button, looked at it for a moment, and pressed it down with his foot. A loud metallic whirring sound erupted from Kairi's cell and, within moments, the bars had risen above the ceiling. Kairi beamed, ran to Sora, and hugged him tightly, as if it was the last hug she would ever give. She kissed him on the cheek and let go, motioning him to free Amy.

When the two girls were released, the new trio lined up at the door. Sora suddenly remembered the hundreds of Drill-bot Heartless that were probably behind it, and became cautious. "Wait," he started, but Amy had become too excited at finding Sonic and ran for the door. "Amy, stop!" He shouted while summoning his Keyblade. Kairi stepped back and braced herself for the imminent battle beyond the door.

When the door opened, they found nothing. Sora lowered his weapon, stood straight and raised an eyebrow. "Well, that was different," he said, shrugging.

"What were you expecting? Eggman Robots?" Amy questioned.

"Something like that."

"Don't worry," Amy pointed to herself with her thumb like Sonic does, "I can take 'em!"

Sora would have responded, but Eggman's voice over an intercom beat him, "Hem-hem. I see you have managed to free my prisoners, Sora. Go ahead and keep them, I just got four more on the deck! Take the Egglift up if you wish to _try_ and save your other friends." He cackled with laughter before signing off.

"Other friends?" Kairi was the first to speak, "Who else is here?"

Sora explained everything as they left the prison deck.

* * *

"How do we always get stuck in this mess?" Shadow muttered, while holding his Keyblade out.

"Beats me," Sonic answered to Shadow's right. Riku and King Mickey were facing the opposite the two hedgehogs, all four of them back to back, wondering the same thing.

They had found themselves surrounded by dozens of Drill-bot heartless less than two minutes after Sora had run off. They weren't attacking, but there were definitely too many to take on, and everyone was still exhausted from the battle on the mountain.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Riku questioned, never taking his eyes off the Heartless in front of him.

"Beats me," Sonic answered again. Shadow glared at him for a second before returning his attention forward.

The four stood in battle position for what felt like hours, with nothing happening, until Eggman's voice boomed from above. "Well, look at what we have here! I had thought you Keyblade Wielders were smarter, but it turns out you're just as easy to trap as Sonic and Shadow!"

"What do you want, Eggman?" Riku shouted at the Egg Transport several meters above them.

"Isn't it obvious? I want the last two Chaos Emeralds! Hand them over and I'll let you go free, and I may even stop the Heartless Invasion that started two minutes ago," he cackled as the four below him looked up in anger.

"We'll never give you these Chaos Emeralds!" Sonic called out heroically, swinging his Keyblade to add emphasis.

"Really, now? Well, we'll just have to see about that," Eggman growled as he pushed a button on his transport.

The sound was faint, but it got louder each time. It was the sound of giant wings pushing down the air with massive force, and everyone knew what was coming next. The nearly complete Dragoon flew up from below and continued alongside the Egg Carrier.

Eggman spoke again, "That's not all, I've also-"

"SOOOONIIIC!" A girl's voice shrieked from just beyond the circle of Heartless.

Shadow looked at Sonic, "That sounds like-"

"AMY?" Sonic cut him off, as he watched her pummel through Drill-bots with her giant hammer. Sora and Kairi were running far behind her, unable to keep up. Riku and the King smiled at the fact that Kairi was safe, but quickly switched back to fight mode.

Shadow took the distraction as an opportunity, and used Chaos Control to teleport onto the Egg Transport. He kicked Eggman in the face and stabbed his Keyblade into the main control of the Transport. The hovering Egg flew in random directions, and eventually started to plummet to the deck of the airship.

With the main console destroyed, the Drill-bot Heartless immediately shut down and reverted back to their cube forms. The Egg Transport landed on the deck and Shadow jumped down, leaving Eggman in his seat with a large bruise on his cheek.

He started shouting as he crawled out of the downed transport, "Why do you-... This is... GAH! You've left me no choice! If you're not going to hand over those Emeralds, then I'm just going to beat them out of you! Dragoon, attack!"

The metal dragon rose in the air, tilted it's wings and coasted above a flat platform on the deck. It turned around in mid-air and landed, waiting for the others to come to it.

"Wow, this brings back memories," Sonic sighed as he realized that the Dragoon had landed on the same place they fought Chaos 6 so many years ago.

"Stop reminiscing! We have to destroy the Dragoon!" Shadow scolded Sonic. He was about to speed towards the Dragoon when Sora stopped him.

"Wait!" He held his Keyblade straight up and called loudly, "Heal!" The green healing light emerged from his keyblade and created a dome around the six of them. Everyone suddenly felt refreshed, and no longer exhausted. When the light faded, Sora smiled, "Now, let's take this thing down!" He pointed his Keyblade at the Egg Dragoon, and everyone broke into a run to the final rematch.

* * *

_A/N: Don't forget to Review! I reallly want to know how i'm doing! _


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